Christmas day 2004 was an extra special Christmas for my family, my two sisters and their families had come to my house for Christmas day. This was the first Christmas the three of had spent together since our mother died in 1995. Tension and hard feeling came between some of us after her death.

Some of that tension was visible that Christmas day, but everyone seemed to trying really hard to push it aside. My youngest sister and middle sister, who had a hard time communicating since the death of our mother, where very happy we were all there. It was like I had my family back. We made videos and my husband insisted he take a picture of the three of us, although we all hate having our pictures taken. We put our arms around each other, smiled for the camera in front of the Christmas tree, never in a million years imagining that 48 hours later, I would be franticaly throwing clothes in a bag, praying my baby sister would not die in the 2 hours it would take me to get to her.