February, Before We Knew

Flash back to February 2020.

My sister and I did the With or Without You 5K in Johns Creek. A Valentine’s Day race. We were excited to do it together—just us, an ordinary kind of joy.

It snowed as we moved along the path. Actual snow. Falling while we walked. Completely unexpected and honestly hilarious. We laughed about stopping. Thought about it for a moment. But no one else did…and neither did we. So we kept going.

The snow was beautiful. And at the time, so was everything else. The world felt open. Stable. Full of promise. We were looking ahead, thinking about the year in front of us, unaware of how much was about to change.

We didn’t know that the next month our mom would be diagnosed with a terminal illness.

We didn’t know that COVID would take hold, reshaping daily life in ways we couldn’t yet imagine.

We didn’t know that the world we were moving through was already on the edge of becoming something else entirely.

But in that moment, we were happy.

Walking side by side. Laughing. Moving forward. Everything felt right. The snow, the path, the ease of it all.

That day lives in my memory as it was—not as a warning, not as a before-and-after marker—but as a reminder of how precious unknowing joy can be.

Sometimes the moment is enough.

And sometimes, years later, you realize just how much it held.