March 1, 2024

How many ways can you measure 12,234 days?

From a calendar perspective it comes out to 1,748 weeks, or approximately 402 months.

For me though - 12,234 days is a lifetime.

12,234 days is the number of days that my older brother Mike was alive.

He was born on December 13, 1956 and he died in a climbing accident on Denali/Mt. McKinley Alaska in June of 1990.

As anyone who has ever lost someone dear to them knows, after the loss, life can be viewed from the perspective of - before they died and after they died.

Past and future events are put into one of those two boxes.

For years I told myself that I would recognize the date when my brother was gone for more days than he was here.

Well, I hate to admit this, but I missed that date.

It turns out that the crossover date was December 10. 2023.

I missed it because I am bad at math.

So now, as of today, Mike has been gone for 12,316 days - and I still miss him every single day.