S is for Sisters

The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend.  ~ Cali Rae Turner

I recently read a post on one of the blogs I visit that really got to me. The blogger wrote about how her sister had been diagnosed with brain cancer, and my heart broke for her and her family. As the youngest in my family, I could relate to the relationship the blogger described with her sister, who was older. I also couldn't help but think about how devastated I would be if I got that news about one of my sisters. So, while I originally had a different post planned for S, I decided to write about sisters instead. 

I know many people have difficult or toxic relationships with their sisters, but I have been fortunate to have the opposite experience. I have a great family, and friends who are very dear to me, but there is nothing that is quite the same as my relationship with my sisters. 

People say we talk alike and act alike, and share many of the same mannerisms. It's hard for me to say if that's true, but I do know we can talk in a shorthand that no one else is privy to, and I usually know what the other two are thinking without anyone saying a word. I can say "remember when?" and, inevitably, they do. They remember, because they were there too.

When I was a child, I was harassed by a bully who lived down the street. She was a foul-mouthed, nasty girl who clearly enjoyed picking on younger, smaller kids. When my sister learned the bully was harassing me, she went after her. The bully never bothered me again. 

As I've gotten older, I don't need my sister to fight my battles. But it's still been a comfort to know that there has always been someone I could count on to have my back.

When I learned that one of my articles had been accepted for publication, the first person I told was my sister. I got the e-mail at 6:00 in the morning, but I knew I could call her. Conversely, when I've been sick or stressed or faced with a problem, the first people I talk to are my sisters.
 

It's inevitable that people come in and out of our lives, staying for various lengths of time. Some fly through quickly, others come along and take up permanent residence. But through childhood and adolescence, adulthood and middle age, my sisters have been a constant.

I can't imagine a world without them in it.

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each others' hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.  ~ Clara Ortega

With my sisters (I'm the little one in the middle) on Martha's Vineyard