Blog 2721 – 04.11.2023
Sisters – We Are Family
I was proceeded in my family by twin brothers that my mother never talked about. My dad did not believe in keeping secrets and spilled the beans once when my little brother and I were eight and ten respectively. This was the only story that dad ever told just once. I would never have known about them till I was grown and had reason to see the note on a copy of my birth certificate in my mother’s own hand had dad not slipped that once. Mom overhearing dad’s casual remark, cut him off short (that is also the only time I remember my dad being interrupted mid-story and not going right back to the exact spot he left off) and quickly changed the subject.
She was the queen bee in our family and all my brother and I knew of sisters was that my mother loved hers and had some regret that she never gave my daddy a little girl or us a little sister. After my brother and I were in school a few years my mom started keeping her dead brother Richard’s daughter Deardra for his wife Judy while she worked week days. So for a few years we had a little sister at breakfast and a couple hours after school to play with, to love, and enjoy. But as soon as she started school we saw her only at family Christmas gatherings and hardly any time else. When mom’s youngest sister Patsy started working her baby girl came to stay with us as Deardra had and Stacey became our new sister.
When I joined the Army on my eighteen birthday Stacey was still staying at our house so along with the letters I wrote to my mom I included printed notes with drawings to my Sweet Tootie, my new little sister.
My first three wives all had sisters and I came to love them as my own but my relationships with them sadly ended as quickly as the marriages did. I have been married to my last lovely and loving wife Linda Lee for almost thirty-four years and she has two wonderful sisters, Esther and Sarah, who are as dear to me as my first two little sisters.
I consider myself blessed to have had and still have many sisters and brothers. Someone has said that friends are the family we get to choose. It dawned on me recently that one of the great lessons that we learn from the family we are born with is how to see the things we like least in ourselves and others and love them all the same. We are family!
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R8aimP_hp8Y1xiJsQGPA_AkOq5DBH3Hr/view?usp=drivesdk
Raggedy Ann’s New Sisters
theencouragingword 