Using Grief to Help the Homeless

On the 21st of November, 2021, just a few weeks after I’d survived mastectomy surgery for triple-negative breast cancer and after half a year of chemotherapy, my younger brother, Tim, ran in the Philadelphia Marathon and then died (we assume) in his sleep later that night.

For the few short years following this tragedy, I’ve been unable to celebrate my birthday or much of anything, really, but this year, I finally wanted to mark my birthday on the 6th of October. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to celebrate my birthday, but I knew I wanted to somehow “mark” the day ....