This week marks five years since my dear sister left us in 2019. It does not get easier, really. But, while we all remain heartbroken, we remember her joy and beautiful smile on this day and always. In memoriam, I republish this post on the anniversary of seeing her go… May she be surrounded by the angels and making them laugh as she did with us! Te extraño mucho, Luly…

Before there was me, there was my sister:  Luly.  Meet Luly!!!!!!

Being born before me means she got to travel before I did through the accident of birth order :).   However, I have the claim to have flown first at a younger age.  She was no pushover in this category:  her first flight was around 9 months old to go to Puerto Rico from her birth town of Philadelphia.  But I got to at 4 months old.

My sister was not only my play companion in our childhood, but also my travel companion.

We traveled together between Miami and San Juan a few times throughout our childhood and pre-teen years with a side trip, no, two, to Walt Disney World in Orlando in 1973, a year-and-a-half after it opened in 1971.  Yes, we went to Disney twice in the same summer a few weeks apart!  My Godfather took us first and then my parents took us.  Sweeeet!!  My sister’s love of Disney is well-known by everyone who knows her – I think I know how it started!

Our traveling turned international with a trip to Panama in the late 1970s to visit family there and a side trip to one of the Pearl Islands:  Contadora – a little piece of paradise off the Pacific coast of Panama.

Our last trip together before serious adulthood (she was over 18 already… I wasn’t) was a day trip between San Juan and the island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.   It wasn’t a sibling trip:  she was going with a high school friend and I was like the chaperone (never mind I was a tad younger than both of them!).  It was a hectic day but it was fun.

As we got busy with college years, our travels together were limited to spending the holidays or other significant events back at home.  Our next bigger adventure together was when I spent 6 months living in Paris, France on assignment with work.  My sister and her husband came over, explored Paris, Versailles and Normandy with me, and then they explored Belgium and The Netherlands on their own.  She loved the entire trip and the experience of exploring Europe unguided – adventurous!

Later, after her awesome kids were a little older, we continued joint travels mainly through cruises.  Cruises were perfect for someone with kids with the kids’ club helping them burn energy, while the adults relaxed on board.  Of course, all meals were together and off-cruise sightseeing was too.

We got to explore Alaska, Vancouver/Victoria, and many places in the Caribbean together.  My sister enjoyed laying by the pool on the boat (or on a beach at a cruise stop) and enjoying a frozen drink while at it.  She also enjoyed the shows, dancing, and people watching.

While they went to some resorts in the Caribbean with my parents, I only got to do one resort trip with them to the Dominican Republic’s Punta Cana – heavenly place!

Another adventure we had was renting a home in the Smoky Mountains by Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We enjoyed the drive, the towns, the national park, and, barely escaping a bear that walked through our mountaintop rental house’s street right after she and I had wrapped up a short walk around the street.  Thankfully, we saw it maybe half an hour after we had gone inside.  The view from the house’s deck was sweet.

Later we branched out big time and splurged with a Baltic cruise!  She and her family, with our parents, an aunt/uncle, and I, flew to Copenhagen to catch our Baltic cruise.  We spent a little time in Copenhagen exploring and then went on the cruise.  Stockholm (Sweden), Berlin (Germany), St. Petersburg (Russia), and Tallinn (Estonia) were the stops we made and we all loved both the sunsets over the Baltic Sea and the ports we visited.  It was a very memorable trip since there were 9 of us.  Our favorite adventure was figuring out how to get everyone into the executive lounge I had access to due to my status for breakfast and happy hour!  Always successful, not the least because the staff was super nice and relaxed.

Outside of smaller road trips, in the last few years our biggest trip took place a couple of years ago when she, my Mom and I, joined by an uncle, went to explore my Mom’s (and ours!) ancestral land in Spain’s Basque country and to make a special spiritual pilgrimage to Lourdes, France.  Both my sister and Mom had been named after the Virgin of Lourdes so it had special meaning for that reason and others.

We started in amazing San Sebastian, spent a day or two driving around the countryside visiting Basque villages and towns in our family tree, before heading over to Lourdes (with a short stop in cool Biarritz).

We had decided to take the opportunity to see more by not returning home the way we had come (U.S.->Paris->Bilbao) but to go check out Barcelona and fly home from there.  That placed Andorra and Montserrat in our route which was great as it got me to check off my last of the tiny European countries and see the important mountaintop monastery of Montserrat.  We enjoyed great food in Barcelona as well as riding the hop-on//hop-off bus all the time to get to places or just see them from the comfort of the bus.  The serious walking was left for the early morning and later afternoon/evening.

Three weeks ago, my sister went on a trip that I did not get to do with her:  all the way to the final destination.  Sadly, my sister lost her spirited fight against stage 4 breast cancer, a fight she fought for over 3 years.  She lived those years fully:  working in her dream job helping children in our society as a social worker, laughing with family and friends all the time, being mischievous (¡traviesa!), and traveling!  She got to do the trip to Europe I just described, a cruise, and her first visit to the Windy City, Chicago, all in the same year!

I (as is everyone who knew her) is deeply saddened at her passing and are missing her terribly.  But we will get back together again some day and that is of great comfort.  Every time I travel, I will think of her – which I did anyway, of her and the rest of my family, carrying their photo on my adventures, something that she always found touching.

I may have beaten her at who got to fly younger, but my sister beat me in getting to heaven first.  Probably so she can prepare all the pranks she will continue to play on me while I am down here and once I get there.  Some things -thankfully- never change 🙂

God bless you, Luly, and may you be soaking in the joys of heaven as you soaked the sun (beach- or pool-side) down here.  You were definitely sunshine in our lives.

Rest in peace, mi querida Luly.