16 Months

Dear Alexander,

You have been gone from us for 16 whole months now, more than I could ever imagine living without you. I miss you so so much, every single day. We had visitors from overseas here for the last few days and I realized as I had to be a host and there all the time that I am truly broken. There is that part of me inside that will just never be the same again. I am starting to find some sort of glue to put in this enormous hole you left but it is not a very good one. Sometimes I feel it stays up for a while and I think in due time I am able to fill the hole completely. Then again, the glue seems to crumble and crack and I am left feeling broken. Although I know deep down that you could not come to me when you were feeling so down it because you simply were way too far down in this deep depression it is so hard for me to understand that at all times. Do you realize all that you miss here? Our little sisters are growing up and do not have you at their side to be a big brother. Sure, they have two more, but not you. And you were special, as are they. But no one can be replaced.
Last night I had a horrible dream that made me realize just how engraved the enormity of the loss of you is in my brain. I dreamt that I called Sophie and she said in a low voice that Walter was gone. In my dream, they did not know whether it was suicide or not. But do you know how I woke up weeping? I did not know where to let myself. I do never, ever want to re-live this and yet I am scared that I have to every day and – apparently – even at night. Did you know these all would be consequences of your actions? I do not think so, you could not look any further than your own pain. So here I am again, feeling so sorry for you and so helpless for not having been able to do something for you, to take your pain away. I guess, my mind is still running in circles, still hitting the same kind of waves even though the shape of them is different than it was 16 months ago. I do realize now that this will most likely be a part of me for the rest of my life, obviously to a yet different degree. I miss you more than words could ever say. And I hope you are feeling alright now. There has to be some good in all this.
I love you forever,

Your big sis Carola

A rainbow on Sunday evening

Dreams and thoughts

I don’t dream much of Alexander. If I dream there are more somehow scary dreams that are not directly related to him. I wish I could see him in my dreams and ask him the questions that I have for him. But it is not happening. However my brother, Alexander’s twin brother, dreamt of him. In his dream Alexander sat on a chair, leaning back casually how he used to do it and said “well, guess it just is how it is now. Can’t change anything anymore. Gotta go with it.” This dream and what he said has been following me the last few days. This is probably partly because it is so much like Alexander. It sounds so exactly like something he might say if you asked him today. But I feel like I want more from him. I want to know whether he is sorry or not, would he do something different if he could choose again? Is he sorry for the pain he caused us? Or is he really still so narcissistic that he does not see what he does to his loved ones? I wish I could get an answer.
Alexander was a difficult brother. There used to be a time when we were really close, when we were children. I loved him dearly, we did excursions, sometimes even only the two of us. I could not imagine going with anyone of the others but him. Obviously, being brother and sister, we still got caught in fights a lot too but they were never really serious. When we were teenagers we fought a lot more. I think that I felt as if he challenged my position as the oldest child in the family. These were bad fights now and it took us a long time to get past them. I don’t think that we ever got as close as we have been in our early childhood however. In his last year on this earth he started confiding in me and told me many of his problems. From my knowledge of today I know that they were only a minor fraction of what was bothering him, but it was a start. I felt like I really wanted to help him, so I tried. I tried talking to him, getting him to seek professional help, just being there for him, listening to him, arguing with him etc. I turned out that nothing helped. I could do nothing to change his mind in the end. It makes me so sad to know that I failed him. I often just talked with my mum about how best to help him. I think that it might have been better to just direct all that energy in talking about how to help him directly towards him. But it was so difficult to advise him what to do. He wouldn’t want to hear much of it. Only in certain moments you would not get screamed at immediately or he would not turn back at you and hurt you so deeply that you had to turn from him. The fear of something like that happening often kept me from talking with him directly. I wish I had been so scared. I know I am strong enough to take a lot so why did I not just let it happen? I am sorry, Alexander, that I failed to help you. I can’t even accuse you that you did not tell me what you were thinking about. I knew you were contemplating to do it and yet I did not do enough to keep you from doing it. I feel so guilty for that.