let's create a new word

I had a great weekend with my girls who came to visit from Michigan and North Carolina. It was about a year ago I started chemotherapy and so their visit became, at least for me, a kind of anniversary.

But I have always been uncomfortable with using the word anniversary in any context other than a wedding anniversary. To me anniversaries are happy and joyous occasions. Wikipedia defines it as

"An anniversary (from the Latin anniversarius, from the words for year and to turn, meaning (re)turning yearly; known in English since c. 1230) is a day that commemorates and/or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event."

Okay, but even Wikipedia goes on to discuss mostly birthdays and weddings.

For instance, to celebrate the anniversary of 911 is ghoulish - I understand the intent, but the words used are dreadful. That's my feeling for recognizing anyone's death be it by a terrorist, a drunk driver, a train or plane accident or any numerous ways people pass from this life.

attacks on the world trade So, I was walking Pepper, my still frisky though aging Jack Russell, the other night and came up with a new word/concept. How about saying re-memory instead of anniversary? "It's my yadayada's re-memory day today." Or "September 11, 2007 is the re-memory day for the terroristscenter."

It works for me! Using re-memory acknowledges something important happened, with the distinction that re-memory is in the present tense (as in still active memories) and remembered is in the past.

To belabor the point..we recall going to Woodstock and all that occurred there (if we still have enough brains to think back that long ago), but we would have a re-memory celebration on the date we first smoked marijuana. OR because I never went to Woodstock, January 29th is the re-memory day of my first chemo treatment....it wasn't a swell time, so in my mind not an anniversary.

I'm keen on this, so let me know what you think.