A very touching tribute to a very beautiful soul. The tirio sisters have beautiful Somali names, Ayan (lucky), Jamila (beauty) and Idil (complete). I am sorry for your loss and hope you find peace.
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It is not often that the complexity of female relationships is profiled. Thank you for your depth and honesty.
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Very poignant essay that hits home for me. Thank you.
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This is so powerful. I'm sorry for your loss and wish you peace. And wish you joy with your sister.
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This is simply beautiful. Blessings to lucky you and your sister!
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Thank you for sharing this poignant, beautiful story. You girls are so very blessed to have had one another.
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Thank you for this reassurance that things will be OK for my oldest and youngest sons, who lost their 22 year-old brother, also born in 1995, earlier this year.
All I can do is pray that the love and care they are showing each other now will continue as they move through their lives.
Your line "I knew we would not live forever, but I thought we would live long enough." brought me to tears and “It’s going to be O.K.,” is what keeps me going through this dark tunnel of grief.
Thank you.
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@Peace Searcher, I am so sorry for your loss.
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@Peace Searcher So sorry for your loss.
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@Peace Searcher
Peace and strength to you and your sons in this hard time.
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Your essay is beautiful and moving and haunting. It resonates with me in the parts highlighting loss, alienation, and the inevitable beatification of the cherished lost child. Sadly, my youngest brother's death as a teen (also in a car accident-caused by a drunk driver) created apparently immovable wedges among we surviving 3 sisters. I'll share your essay in hope that it nudges those wedges away, at least a bit.
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Thank you for sharing. I lost both of my younger sisters to cancer, and it is a grief and a loneliness deeper than I could ever have imagined. I miss them every day.
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I have been "ghosted" by my sister for almost eleven years. It was all the more bewildering and devastating because there was no precursor.
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I don’t know your family or situation, but believe me...there was a precursor...there are three sides to every story...
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@Stacy K I cried and begged her to pick up the telephone to give me the reason to no avail.
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Ms. Osman,
A wonderful essay, and lovely tribute to both of your sisters.
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I also lost a sibling, and it unfortunately took that loss to draw the remaining three closer together. I wish I could go back in time and be a better sister to my brother as well, especially at the end, but unfortunately I can't.
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My loss of one of my five brothers caused a rift rather than a positive change with another. Every person handles loss differently.
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Ayan: lucky. The luck has passed to you and Idil, though I hold a superstitious fear of claiming luck, ever.
You had no more "failures" as a sister than the rest of us; no more control over the event that changed everything.
You were so young to learn how grief often seeps out in anger, from inner turbulence, against those closest to us. Usually people are not even aware of the source.
And again, I complement Yvette Federova for art that beautifully captures the narrative.
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Thank you for telling your beautiful story.
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May your sister's memory always be for a blessing.
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