Last night, Ed came back to me in my dreams. It was the day he was going to the Golden Gate Bridge to end his life, and in my gut, I knew he had chosen that day. So I called him that morning, and he answered the phone. I pleaded with him to not go. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t go,” he said firmly. “Because I love you,” I said to him, as I start to cry. He responded, “Tell me what that means.” And the dream ends. I wake up feeling miserable and not wanting to get out of bed.

In the dream before that, I am speaking with a woman who is calmly explaining to me that I will never see my brother again even after I leave this world. “Why not?” I asked. “I’m going to see him in heaven after I die.” She looks at me and responds, “No, you will never see him again because he was a Christian, and you are not. You won’t be seeing him in heaven.” I am so upset at hearing this news. I will never see my brother again, even after I am dead. How is that possible…?

I hope Ed still comes to me in my dreams. I want to see him as much as possible, especially since I’ve been asking him to come, and he’s been as difficult as always and has been refusing until now. I want to find peace in knowing that he is really at peace… because for some reason, a nagging feeling in the back of my head keeps thinking he’s not fully at peace quite yet. Is there something else I need to do for him?

I don’t care what that woman said. I’m definitely going to see my brother again. We are going to get bubble tea together, eat San Tung dried fried chicken and Kitaro Mexican rolls, and watch Beverly Hills 90210 and Three’s Company reruns the way we used to. One day, we will be together again. I am sure of it.

Today, my parents and I went to visit Ed. Sadly, I noticed when I walked into the Hall of the Olympians that more niches seemed to be filled with urns. Did that many deaths really happen in the last month and a half that I’d been away?

One niche that was very close to Ed’s is actually his former high school classmate’s brother’s. We learned from my aunt, who visited about a week ago and ran into their family, that this classmate’s brother died suddenly in a motorcycle accident. He was just two weeks shy of his 31st birthday. I noticed that his urn said that he passed on August 25th – that was one day before Ed would have turned 34.

Every day, people are being born, married, and dying. While the former two are events that everyone embraces, the latter is really the last thing in the world anyone wants to face or deal with. I ran into Mary, who was our service director who helped us with all the arrangements, and I asked her how she got into this business. She said to me, “you know, I think it’s our job in life to serve people and their needs, and this is one way I can be there for those in need.”

While that is commendable in itself to deal with everyone else’s family’s deaths all day as a full-time job, I know as a fact that could never be a job I could fulfill. I’ve been to so many funerals in my life that I think I’ve had enough. And this last one was the biggest cincher. Now, if everyone can just please stop dying and hurting themselves, I think I would be semi-fine. Oh, and bring Ed back, too, while you are at it. I hate that I have to visit my brother in a room full of ashes, as peaceful and pretty as it is. Why can’t I visit him at a nice apartment in this area where he is living happily and independently?

Since my brother’s passing, I’ve become more sensitive than ever to the idea of babies being born into a cruel harsh world. A lot of selfishness in the world of child-rearing exists, because pretty much everyone who wants children wants them mainly because they want the next generation of their family to exist once they are gone; they want their names to be passed on and the fruits of their labor. They think that children will fulfill their lives and give them a sense of purpose, but in order for that to really be the case, those children’s parents need to be in a good head space themselves and have a certain level of emotional maturity and happiness in their own lives to make sure that their kids will be happy.

If I were to never get to a period of life where I was actually happy, fulfilled, emotionally sound, and able to fully and comfortably support myself, I would rather not have children at all because I never want to repeat the mistakes of my parents, and I never want to bring children into this world who are at high risk for unhappiness, mental instability, and familial dysfunction.

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

-Mary Frye

In a condolence card, my friend wrote this for me to describe that although my brother is no longer with us physically, he is still with us through me. By knowing and interacting with me, they are also knowing him, as well.

Not a minute of any day goes by when I do not think of Ed. Being in the house where we were raised and grew up together the last few days makes me feel aching sensations that have no physical cause. Seeing his favorite soap (Lever 2000) and his favorite shampoo (Head & Shoulders), and seeing the many gifts he’s given our family and this house hurts. Curious George, Nemo, the Bless this Home serving platter, my flannel bed sheets, my comforter and cover, kitchen utensils, all the thick, hotel-quality towels in our towel closet – he is everywhere. He really hasn’t died, even though he has physically.

I had a lot of jumbled dreams last night, and now, I can’t seem to remember any of them except one. In that dream, I was here at home, and my mother was telling me that my uncle invited Ed to go fishing with him, but they didn’t catch any fish. I told her that wasn’t true because Ed had told me that they caught a really big fish, and he’d even sent me a photo of it. So then, my mother starts grumbling on, not understanding why Ed wouldn’t save them any of the fish, and wondering where he actually took the fish and if he had cooked it.

My first instinct is to also wonder why he didn’t bring back any of the fish to share with my parents. Then my next thought is, actually, he was probably smart to do that because they probably wouldn’t have appreciated it anyway and would have found something to nitpick at. The shower curtain in our bathroom was torn and has been torn for a long time, so I decided to replace it with a new one and also add in a liner. My dad just started complaining about it, saying it was excessive to have more than a liner in the bathroom. I guess Ed was always aware that they can’t appreciate anything and just love to find the worst in everything. Yet somehow, I keep trying, and he has already stopped.

While doing my cardio yesterday morning at the gym, I was watching the news when the dreaded commercials came on (I work in marketing, yet I hate commercials). Closed captioning was on, so I could read whatever was said during the news or commercials. An ad about investing or retirement came on. I can’t remember the message word for word, but it was basically along the lines of “Don’t you want to lead a happy, fulfilled life?” Yet, at the end of it, this is how it appeared at the bottom of the TV screen:

“Don’t you want to lead a happy fulfilled life? -Ed”

I realize that there are generally mistakes in spelling and wording with closed captioning and transcribing in general, but where in the world did that end part “-Ed” come from…? It’s as though it was a hidden (and pretty explicit) message from my brother up in heaven, telling me that I need to lead a fulfilled life. I need to do things that make me happy and not engage in things that will weigh me down or stress me out. I’m currently trying to re-evaluate everything in my life right now to see what needs to stay, go away, and be added. This is going to be a long, slow process, but I’m hoping that I can take my brother’s advice and lead the fulfilled, purpose-driven life he always wanted me to lead (and apparently still reminds me to lead… even though he isn’t here anymore).

Last night, I finally fulfilled one of the things my brother always wanted me to: I finished reading Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life. He gave this to me years ago when he first converted to Christianity, and though I had gotten three-quarters of the way through it, I stopped at some point because I got frustrated with messages that conflicted with what I thought was “right.” After his passing, I decided that I would finally not only finish reading it, but re-read it from start to finish as though I’d never read it before. So one chapter a day as it guides you to do, I read it before bed.

A few things still conflict with what I believe. There’s one chapter when I got really upset in which Warren says everything bad in your life happens “for a purpose.” There’s a reason for it to happen, and it will make your life better. I was so infuriated by reading this because of course, my first thought was, are you telling me that my brother taking his own life will somehow make my life better? How could that possibly be real?! I felt so much pain reading that chapter that I almost stopped reading it again.

But at the end of it, I actually felt a little bit more fulfilled then I thought I would. A lot of great ideas are in it that I want to go back and reread and reference in my Bible that Ed gave me, but the final chapter is kind of the sticking point. Its theme is “living on purpose.” That basically means that everything we do in our life, big or small, should be done for a reason that will serve why we are here on this earth. Will this make me a happier person? Will this help me serve God better? Living on purpose is the only way to live… because if we do not do this, it’s like we are just aimless vagabonds wandering through life, not knowing why or how or what… or anything.

Today marks twelve years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center here in New York City, and many innocent lives came to a tragic, premature end. Today is also the first 9/11 that my brother is not here to see.

My Ed was a worry wart; he got it from our mother. In 2008, when I accepted a job offer here in New York, he was worried about my safety in light of the 9/11 attacks, as well as what he’d heard in general about crime in New York (which he realized after visiting twice that it’s nowhere as bad as it used to be). As he was learning different moves in karate, he even set me aside a few times when I was home to show me basic self-defense moves in the event that I might be accosted. Apparently, he didn’t think I took it seriously enough, so he made me redo the moves over and over and over. It drove me crazy, but I knew then, as I do now, that he was dead serious about my knowing how to protect myself.

“Will you remember what I taught you?” he asked. “This is important. You need to remember this.”

Yes, Ed. I remember. I will always remember what you taught me, even the things you didn’t realize you taught me.