Another Birthday...

So a couple of days ago I turned another year older.  I'm not a big fan of birthdays (my own!), but this one was particularly hard as it was the first one I have ever had without my sister.  Katy would always phone me and sing Happy Birthday  in a very tuneless and cheerful manner and she would always send me the best presents.  When we were young teenagers we both absolutely loved a series of French historical romance novels.  They were published in the 50's and we had owned some very battered copies when we were young, which unfortunately got lost amidst countless house moves.  One year, my sister spent a lot of time and effort tracing and tracking down these books.  They have been out of publication years and years ago, but Katy managed to find each novel - one by one from individual sources and for different prices and she boxed them up and sent them to me for my birthday.  That is the most thoughtful gift I have ever received and I will treasure those books the rest of my life.  It was the sheer effort that Katy put in to getting those books for me - the love she put into the idea and the joy it gave her every time she managed to get hold of another book for me.

Not having someone who puts that much thought into me any more is hard - very hard.  But, as I often say on here, life does go on and good things do happen.  My clever daughter passed her driving test first time last week, much to her delight and excitement and much to my pride in her accomplishment.  The same day Ella took her driving test, I went for a job interview and I was successful in getting it.  It will be a much better job with a lot more responsibility (and money) and I am ready for the challenge.  Scared but ready.  A lot of candidates were interviewed for the position and I was the one they picked so I do admit to feeling proud of myself and I know that Katy would be enormously proud of me.

The other positive at the moment is that I joined Slimming World 4 weeks ago and have already lost just over a stone in weight, which I am also very proud of and I know Katy would be very proud of me for that too.

Every accomplishment in my life is another step forward and another step closer to being happy again.  I am embracing the possibilities life is showing me and with every step I feel Katy is here cheering me on.