Happy Siblings Day from Sedona, weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks!
This sure was a weird time to be traveling -- Lower Manhattan was still smoldering and my brothers were living not far from the Pentagon -- but a trip that had been planned long in advance for my mother's 60th birthday. Her brother with whom she had recently reconnected after decades apart and his wife met up with us, where we all rented condos for our respective family units. (My brother Bill had married Jacqueline, and sister Jennifer had married Anthony the previous year, so Terence and I were the only singles.) I remember lots of table tennis, overly competitive games of Balderdash, hot tubbing, great meals at Judi's Restaurant and Lounge plus the family photos, a repeat of the ones we took for my mom's 50th in 1991. The trip took a serious turn when my brother-in-law who has Type 1 diabetes was checking his blood sugar, so we all decided to join in "for fun." Everyone's came up normal except for Bill, who was dealt a gut punch when he saw that his levels were off the chart. Fortunately through diet, exercise and some prescription meds, he was able to get his levels under control in the years that followed. Although there is no known cause of the cholangiocarcinoma (bile-duct cancer) that would later claim his life, my sister-in-law pointed me to some research that suggests there could be a increased risk of it in people with Type 2 diabetes, which in recent years has made the shadow that was cast on this Sedona trip a bit longer in my memory.
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