I closed my blind, seventeen year-old cat in the space underneath the freezer drawer recently. He has lost so much weight since his sister died that he fit without causing the door to catch. His meow, which guests routinely mistake for a baby’s whimper, sounded distant, the way it sounded on mornings I used to discover him outside the kitchen slider after a rogue night on the deck.
What is the word that means the same thing as widow, but refers instead to one left behind by a half-sibling? In German, of course, it’s Halbgeschwisterwitwe. Maybe it’s the same in English but just not very common here*.

If it’s true that emotions affect our physical well-being, I ache to think I may have contributed to Garp’s health problems as a sibling-widower by going on and on in front of him about getting a puppy. I wonder if he understands the power of positivity. 

A few weeks ago I added both good energy and electrolytes to my physical therapy regimen, and my leg has stopped hurting when I run uphill. For the purpose of running euphoria, I am tempted to have warm thoughts even more often–it seems to work for Kilian Jornet–but I guess I’m a little bit afraid of losing my edginess and my dirty Hendrick’s martinis. 

The German word for children-who-are-gradually-getting-more-allergic-to –their- seventeen-year-old-sibling-widowed-cat-while-they-wait-to-get-a-puppy is not used in English because we don’t like to admit the truth of it, just as we don’t read our children the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales. In either case, we hate to see our children teary and bloodshot. 

*e.g. Schadenfreude is in Webster’s Dictionary, but we don’t use it very much because the sentiment is so un-American.