As I paused to take a breath she quietly said "I agree with you. I think so too." And just that quickly she took the wind out of my sails. I had no where left to go.
That is the power of my sister and a lifelong connection.
Forty years ago my sister was told that it was her job to take care of her new baby sister. She has done so ever since.
We shared a bedroom. We shared clothes. We shared friends.
This is the girl that walked me home from school with a bloody nose after I fell on the ice.
The same girl who held me when I cried after a boy broke my heart. And who teased me about having a flat chest and a bubble butt.
This is the girl who used to sing to me late at night in the backseat of the car while my head rested in her lap.
She dragged me, as I whined, all the way through high school math. I couldn't have done it without her.
We went on double dates together.
She taught me how to drive.
She called me a dork and smacked the heel of her hand into the middle of my forehead too many times to count.
She pulled my curls.
We grew up, we got married, we had babies, we moved away.
We've spent hundreds of hours on the phone together since.
Sometimes she irritates me. But most of the time she comforts me. She understands exactly what it was like to grow up with my parents, in my home, in my town.
She thinks the way I think. I can say things to her that I would never say to anyone else - ever. And she never gets offended.
I know that I can call her for any reason, at any time and she'll be there for me.
She is my sister. Our lives are forever intertwined. There is no one like her, no one that could ever take her place.
So often, when we are children, we don't appreciate the gift of a sibling. We fight. We get our feelings hurt. We compete. Yet, for me, my sister is the greatest gift my parents ever gave me and I am grateful.
No comments:
Post a Comment