Joe Knows Too

But I wish he didn't.

This is the tale of another somber ride was also filled a twist and nerdy shout out to some very close to home beauty fun too.

Back in November I drove Joe from the airport to Pasadena. We had a little bit of time and we didn't waste any of it.

Joe noticed my infamous Homer Buddah on the dash and had a few thoughts about it. 

"Where did you get that? It's awesome!"

"I got it from my days working with Loot Crate."

"Oh cool! I love them!"

"Me too. I've loved them for ages. They're a great crew to work with. I've worked with them for a long time and seen them grow up. I remember the first days I worked with them in a tiny little room on Melrose before... well they have a massive warehouse now and the days of being cramped up surrounded by Tetris blocks of nerdiness to be shipped are long past. They deserve it though."

Joe and I had quite a bit of overlap though beyond even that geeky bit however. As I would find out, and, I forget how we got to that tangent exactly, we also shared a love for a certain postcard exchange site called Postcrossing.*

Hint hint that's where a lot of my cards on Mail Madness are coming from.

"Oh you like cards? I do that too! I was just in DC and I grabbed a few specifically for sending for that!"

I was excited. How cool of an intersection. But then it turned. I forgot how actually. I think I was talking about my writing on here and the other sections of the site. Naturally, my sister Jess got brought up...

"I'm sorry that you lost a sibling. I did too."

I was heartbroken for him. I told him about the groups I had gone to since she'd died. I talked about the group information I'd found that I later handed to another woman who had lost her mother.

"It was hard. There aren't many groups for it. I don't know. Most of them are set up for people who lose their children. There's not much for siblings."

I told him about my experience going to a group called The Compassionate Friend which is a group that, while centered on losses of family members is primarily focused on loss of children as well.*

I'll tell more about that one another time on another blog over on Little Mom, Big City later but for now... 

"Yeah it was really hard finding something because the people there are going through their own pain and it's hard for everyone to begin with but some are kind of hostile when they hear you "just" lost your sibling and they lost their children. I'm sorry for your pain regardless."

And then the inevitable talks happened. The exchange of stories of how our siblings both passed and how old they were.

"My 20 year old brother died in a car accident near San Diego."

I won't divulge more about Joe's story. It's not mine to really to tell. It was painful. It was terrible. I told him a bit about Jess.

"I wrote about the day that I found out she had been murdered on my blog. We'd originally worried she might be missing but... nope."

He paused as well too. It was quiet for a moment. A quiet reflective shared moment that only two people who know the joined pain of losing siblings could.

As it got closer to his destination, we returned back to the postcards.

"Do you want a couple from my trip? Write me down your contact info and maybe we can trade some too even though you're far better at it than I am with your 200 something trades.."

"Those are just a counter on there. I have sent more."

"Exactly!"

And so he let me select two cards and we went our separate ways. It was a nice little ride though. It was nice to feel the warmth and joy even if it was sad as well. 

What will this weeks rides be like? I guess you'll have to stay tuned and find out now won't you? See you on the road until the next trip of shared City Driving Stories.