This week I debuted as a contributor at Forbes.com, fulfilling a lifelong desire I’ve had to be “officially” recognized as a writer. It’s been a very interesting road getting here, and looking back I can’t help feeling that losing my little sister Michelle was a big turning point.

Michelle was a writer too. She had a popular regular column in the Wakefield News/Bessemer Pick & Axe, a print newspaper serving the area where we grew up in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She wrote about general interest topics, often relating them to her experiences as a teacher and education administrator.

At the same time, I was writing and editing a newsletter at General Mills, tied to my various jobs there, and I was also blogging. Michelle often commented about how similar our writing styles were.

But my General Mills career stagnated, and I wound up leaving the company and taking a hiatus from most writing. Michelle continued to write, but she had her own problems, much bigger than mine. You see, she was tortured by demons I don’t begin to understand, her whole life long. They became too powerful for her two years ago, and she died far too young, at age 49.

In the days and weeks after that happened I was mostly numb, but one thing I did was take a look at my life and think about what I wanted to be different. Probably the biggest conclusion was that, if Michelle wasn’t around to write anymore, then I needed to get back to it myself.

But I had a big motivation problem. And that got far worse when my Mom died just a few months later. For the next year plus, I was lost. Oh, I went through all the motions – I got all the critical stuff done at work, I kept all my outside commitments pretty well afloat, kept up with my family’s needs (at least I think so), and I probably looked pretty much the same as ever externally. Internally, I lost a huge chunk of my usual ambition and drive. My fitness program was spotty at best, and despite committing to getting back to writing, I didn’t get back to writing.

And then I did. Because Michelle’s voice was always there, about our writing styles being so similar, and along with it was my knowledge that she wasn’t out there writing anymore. So, slowly, I got back into the game. I started back to blogging – once a month at first, then every few weeks, until eventually I was posting regularly once a week. I also started becoming more active on LinkedIn, using it to publicize each blog post, but also to become more vocal about things I cared about in the business world.

And one day not long ago, one of my contacts there shared a post from one his colleagues, looking for someone with manufacturing expertise to write magazine-length articles for a client of hers. I e-mailed my interest and got a nearly immediate reply connecting me with an editor at Forbes. After another few e-mails and a phone call with her, I had a contract. This all happened in a matter of days.

A couple of things, then: First, there is a God and he has a plan for you. Keep your eyes and ears and options open so you don’t miss it. Second, Michelle is gone, but she’s also still here; it was her inspiration and that bond we shared in writing that got me back to doing something I’ve always loved, and to a place where now I can reach a lot more people with it.

Thanks, Shell. I love you.