Whenever I seem to write reflective pieces I seems to always start out with the Seasons of Love from Rent. It always seems fitting because the words are really true. What happens in 525,600 minutes (a year in the life)is too much to write about sometimes.

However, yesterday I was driving home from dinner and realized that a year ago I was on a plane, heading across North America and then over the Pacific Ocean to my amazing vacation in Hawaii. It wasn’t until I got home from dinner that I realized that there was another anniversary that our community and so many people in my facebook community were thinking about as well.

It was the passing of Sy Benlolo (Sy Sylver).

Let me rewind briefly. I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon quite late in the game, and while everyone was already upgrading to Iphones, I was still (and still am) new to blackberry. I knew I was going to Israel after Hawaii and I had my phone ‘unlocked’ thinking I could use a US sim card and use my phone in Hawaii. When I arrived in Chicago for my first connection to Hawaii, I went to the electronic store and asked if I could buy a SIM card. She said, “sure”. Great. Next question, “what about data?”. Answer – it doesn’t come with data. I didn’t know that I had to buy a data package before leaving home! DOH! So much for using the phone in Hawaii.

Met up with B in LAX, waiting for our flight to Honalulu. He was busy showing me things on his Iphone and my Ipod and then we boarded to fly off to paradise for 9 days.

The first couple of days in Waikiki were busy and there really wasn’t time to use wifi (not that I really knew how to use it on my blackberry) so I did not. No emails, Facebook, chat….which was fine by me (surprisingly). Busy spending time with B, going to the North Shore, Diamond Head, Pearl Harbour and more….

Once we arrived on the big Island, Hawaii, the Sheraton resort fee included 15 minutes of free internet daily. While walking around the hotel, I ‘wandered’ into the business centre and logged on. Opened up Facebook and saw in private message from a friend. The message was very short – “did you hear about Sy”. WHAT? what about Sy? No one was on line and I didn’t know what was going on. I sent a message back to this friend and a few others to try to find out what was going on. My 15 minutes was up and we were leaving to go to Maui later that day.

Once we arrived on Maui, the Westin has wifi all over the property and is included in the resort fee. The light bulb finally went off and I started to use my Ipod with the wifi at the Westin.

We were busy in Maui as well, but took some time to finally relax by the pool, B went to the spa and it was a great time to sit back and enjoy the view of paradise.

By that time, I had heard the news about Sy, and what was going on back home. It was a very strange feeling, as I haven’t seen him in person in many years, but always followed his life, his successes and his global travels and adventures. It was a very strange time for me, being in paradise but feeling homesick. If that makes any sense.

So, fast forward to today. I am seeing posts and photos and messages to Sy and that one year has past. I know what these very dear family and friends are thinking about today. I think about it every year when the anniversary of Aviva happens. The first year was the hardest, and every year you remember, because you will never forget. We never forget the people that have touched our lives. Which is one of the reasons why you should make sure that the ones that mean something to you know it all the time, because once they are gone, they are gone.

Today’s musical interlude is not going to be Seasons of Love, but I just called to say I love you.

Have a memorable day!