My sister passed away two years ago yesterday, and I miss her.
I’m not morbid, or in denial or anything like that – I just miss her. Have you lost someone and found yourself thinking of them? Then you’d know how I’ve been feeling these past few days. I suppose bitter-sweet would best describe the feeling.
She was a very keen cyclist, too, but sadly we never got to cycle together. Well, not since we were kids, anyway. Aah, I remember cutting up plastic lids, then pinning it with washing pegs so it flaps against the spokes to make a noise that we pretended was engine sounds!
As a lad I outgrew my 1st bike, and new bikes were expensive. Then out of the blue somebody gave my parents an almost-new bike to give to me. What none of us realised was that that bike was a fixie! I guess, given that I owned a fixie in the late 70’s, early 80’s you could accuse me of being ahead of the time.
You’d be nearer the truth if you accepted that a) I didn’t like riding a fixie, b) it was mine through no choice of my own and c) I actually thought it was partially broken! No trend-setter here, I’m afraid.
After a while of never quite making peace with my fixie, I got a shiny new Raleigh 10-speed racer, with skinny wheels, drop-bars and attitude! I loved that bike!
My sister was still riding her Chopper and for the first time I could leave her eating my dust! Bearing in mind she was older and back then still bigger than me, that was a major achievement to me.
Anyway, as I said above, I’m not morbid and I’m not about to start crying on your virtual shoulder. I just miss my sister sometimes.