The mind is a wondrous thing sometimes.

As I was setting up my new phone the other night, making sure that all of my contacts had transferred correctly from my old phone, I caught myself trying to add my brother to my contacts. Ten years later, I sometimes still forget that he is gone.

Today while I was going through some old letters and cards, I came across the last birthday card he ever gave me, about three months before he died. Whenever I come across something like this -- a photo of him that had been hiding in a drawer, an old card or letter from him, a piece of his writing -- I always have the same reaction: I gasp, then hug it to my chest, then cry. I still miss him so much.

I like to think that coming across that birthday card today was not a coincidence. Maybe it was his way of telling me he's not really gone.