#3 - Letter to Mark

My brother lost his wife last year to breast cancer at only 31 years old.  While she was his wife and the mother of his 3 kids, she was my sister-in-law and my friend.  Losing her took a big toll on my life and I feel like my family and I are still recovering from it.  Mark is having some changes in his life that are private, but that prompted me to write him.  I've done lots of talking about Melinda's death to my wife, my other family, my friends, my colleagues, my patients - I even started a blog about it to share some of the joy that Melinda brought to all of us that knew her.  Who I hadn't talked to, was Mark.  Because of how busy work had gotten, we hadn't seen him since the funeral.  We had talked on the phone about the kids and how he was holding up and things we had done recently and upcoming plans, but we hadn't talked about my feelings about Melinda.  I figured he had his own cross to bear in this regard, so why should I burden him with mine.  After breaking down during a radio program about cancer victims, I decided I needed to write him.  I'm so glad that I did. We both got a new perspective on where we were, and I believe we grew even closer.  Now it will be important to keep that communication up.