A Sad Task

I am writing this post on Thursday, because as I mentioned earlier this week, I'm having company on Friday. I will be running around like a stupid maniac doing errands, cleaning, trying to prepare a decent meal and also something a lot more serious.

I will be doing my sister's hair for her appearance on a national television show called W5. This is my sister who looks after Audrey while I am at work. My sister who's oldest daughter was murdered. I vaguely mentioned this in an earlier post. It's so much a part of my life and there are so many things that have come up lately in regards to it that I decided it was time to talk about it here.

Erin was my oldest niece. She was only seven years younger than me and we were almost like sisters. She went missing in April of 2002 only five months before my wedding. She was 18 at the time. On February 13, 2004 her body was found. It is a truly gruesome story that I cannot bear to write about. I will link articles for anyone who wants to know the story. In a nutshell, her ex-boyfriend killed her. Even now, after so much time has passed I can hardly believe that this has happened to my family. The events that occurred were horrific. The length of time she was missing before her body was found, excruciating and the investigation that took place was unbelievable. He is currently serving a life sentence with no parole for 25 years.

Our family now has a gaping hole where Erin should be. We all miss her terribly, especially my sister and her family. I hate to see them suffer the way they have and still are. Since this all only happened last year the media is still composing documentaries and a book is currently being written about it. My sister and her husband have been meeting with all of these people lately, giving interviews. The W5 one will likely be the one most widely seen. She asked me to do her hair for it and of course I agreed. I think she feels guilty about wanting to look nice for the interview. I wish she wouldn't. I can totally understand. Just because you feel like hell on the inside doesn't mean you have to look like it on the outside. After doing her hair for the funeral, this will be easy.

I am now going to go and get my beautiful baby girl from her crib. The baby who bears her cousin's name. The baby whose presence in this world is helping my family to heal from the horrible loss of someone who we all loved so deeply.