If things had been different, my older sister, Bonnie Stevens, would have been celebrating her 77th birthday today. Instead, she passed away in October 2016 of breast cancer.

In one of those weird coincidences, I just ran into a little video taken when we celebrated her birthday in April 2009 with dinner at our parents’ house in Kahala. It was just Bonnie, our mother (who turned 95 the following month), Meda and me. Our father wasn’t there for the party. He had been in a nursing home since the previous November, after a fall sent him to Queen’s Hospital. We celebrated on April 9, the day before Bonnie’s actual birthday, because Meda and I were both working in town that day.

I say finding the video was a weird coincidence because I just happened to notice it while briefly scanning a small hard drive containing photo files from 2009 to determine how to back up the data. Its tiny thumbnail looked like a fire or volcano, so I clicked and opened it. The “volcano” turned out to be the candles burning on Bonnie’s birthday cake in the first seconds of the video. I have no recollection of the video, so finding it on April 9, the day before Bonnie’s birthday, and the same date that we had that dinner in 2009, rings of synchronicity.

It’s interesting to see my parents house, which is now our house. That light over the dining table was broken, and needed a tap or two in order to turn on. The house itself has been extensively renovated, but the spaces are still much the same.

So, Bonnie, we’ll remember you and have a drink in honor of your birthday this evening. Thanks for reminding me.