Losing someone sucks. This was only my 2nd family member I've lost in adulthood. Shit, that makes it sound like I've mislaid them, I haven't. They are dead; they "passed away"; or as the obit said, "walked into the loving hands of the lord ".

1993 was a wild year for my family. We were living in Wageningen, The Netherlands. The town was perfect. I went to school and was forced to speak Dutch (although I never became thoroughly fluent in the language, I could understand it and translated for my family). My whole family was in heaven. We loved life, we were…