A Pair of Earrings Bring Me Closer to an Angel

She is present in every memory from my childhood; no matter how busy she was, she never failed to make an appearance at the important moments. She was not one of those family members who got less enjoyable with age either; as I got older, our interactions only became more precious, and more entertaining.

She was always the person who loved her chosen people with equal parts tenderness and ferocity, and there is no one who could match her for the way she just made you feel good. As with all the best people, of course, they are often gone too soon.

April 2013: when my aunt went into the hospital at the end of the month with a bout of pneumonia, I thought nothing of it. People in my family are uncommonly resilient; we go into the hospital with the worst injuries and illnesses imaginable, and often walk out of the hospital only days later, and I was sure this would be the same.

Imagine my shock when my mother called me the morning of May 4th to tell me that my beloved aunt had succumbed to her sudden illness and passed away in the arms of my uncle and her mother in the middle of the night. Perhaps other people saw it coming given the seriousness of…