On Friday, November 22, 2024 @ 7:00 pm

Time moves so differently now, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before then, it seemed easier to stay connected in a world that was full of hope and prospect.

Now, we’re nearly 5 years into the 2020’s, and yet… it doesn’t feel like that much time has passed.

For me, the world has broken up into fragments of reality.

Nothing feels the same as it once was. It’s hard to measure the scale of ever moving days on the calendar.

A symptom of time blindness, I fear.

How do you grieve for the loss of a person you lost connection with over the years, but still remember as if you last spoke to them only yesterday? Someone you once knew before the world changed — along with the person you once were, too.

Grief is a compounding element of life, forged between the reality of mortality and the future dreams of subsiding youth. It cares not for the promise of tomorrow, making its entrance suddenly and without warrant, stripping you of solace and hope.

We change and grow with the shifting of time, often whether we want to or not. In the wake of the absence of a loved one, we mourn the person they once were to us during those seasons of our lives. We remind ourselves of how much of an impact they left on us as we continue to find new meaning in the world they left behind.

I met her shortly after I moved to Ohio in 2005, on Halloween of all days.

Just a week before, I’d turned 15 years old, and would be helping to chaperone a group of younger kids for trick-or-treat. It was my first holiday around newly discovered family and extended family, and Angela was introduced to me as Annie — Aunt Annie, at that.

For nearly 15 years, we spent many celebrations, gatherings, memorials, and holidays together as part of each others’ extended family. I enjoyed our shared moments, conversations, and friendship throughout that time, however fleeting it may have been.

Unfortunately, the past four (4) years have certainly taken its toll, and I’ve lost connections with most people I’ve loved in my life — as have many people in the aftermath of the pandemic. We last saw each other around the time my grandmother passed away in 2020.

As a young teenage girl, she made me feel “seen” when I didn’t quite know my place in this world. I effortlessly gravitated towards her humorous quip and infectiously welcoming personality.

She was a beautiful, loving, compassionate, and courageously wonderful human being. I may have only known you for fragments of my life, in a time before the world changed, but I’m grateful to have known you at all in the time we had to share.

Rest in peace, Aunt Annie. 🤍

You were loved.