First in Line | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: First in Line | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ken Grant
06/03/20
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A couple years ago our family suffered a deep blow when my oldest sister, Dawn, passed away unexpectedly due to a brain tumor. While we all know that death is inevitable, we are never prepared when it actually occurs. Under the best of circumstances, we have some time to prepare, but in most cases it hits us hard and we reel under the impact. For quite some time I couldn’t even talk about her loss. I had no words and for a writer that is very frustrating indeed. Just writing this, now, is a sign that somewhere along the way I managed to come to terms with her loss and am able to move on just a little bit.

The healing began when I was finally able to think about her, not focusing on her death, but on her life. The memories came slowly, but eventually they came. There were many very good times, but one particular memory stood out above them all. Dawn was older than me and she already had a family and was living in Massachusetts when I was very young. My mother and I would spend three weeks visiting her and her family every summer and those were some wild and amazing times together. Her home, like many in her neighborhood, had a large basement and in that basement was a table that was able to hold jigsaw puzzles. Each year when I went down in the basement, I would find a puzzle in some stage of being solved. Puzzles were a passion for Dawn and the entire family got involved. Nearly any time, day or night, at least one person and sometimes many more were working to solve a puzzle. Once a puzzle had been solved, Dawn would introduce a new puzzle and the process would continue. It was something that brought everyone together and once solved it was an accomplishment that each individual could claim to have had at least a small part in achieving.

Now, whenever I am in a store that contains jigsaw puzzles, I enjoy walking through that area and remembering my sister Dawn. She was an amazing person and now time has enabled me to think about her without quite as much pain. I still miss her deeply. She was caring and loving in all the right ways. She was at times a second mother and always knew the right words to say. Her passion for solving puzzles was only one of many qualities that caused her to stand out and made her an incredible person. I continue to feel blessed to have had time on Earth with her and I look forward to seeing her again in eternity. I don’t know if they have puzzles up in heaven, but if they do then I am sure that she will always be first in line.

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