Sisters

by Jean
(Richmond, BC)

If you have sisters, you know what I mean. If you don't, listen and learn.

I have known my sisters all of my and their lives. We come from the age when children were popped out every 14 months or so and you lived your life following the ones ahead of you through school, church choir, Brownies and awkward social situations that don't bear the spotlight very well.

I have 4 of the critters and as we have all grown, I am amazed at the people we have all become.

After all, are we not all of the same manufacture? Same morals beaten into our vulnerable little heads, same food fought for at the same table, same timeless fashions that created war every morning when one was deemed to have "stolen" the exclusive belonging of another?

And yet, as adults we live strong and independant lives, never give one another a thought, unless tragedy or a family dinner comes along and we are tossed together in the salad of genetic familiarity.

I have to say, when this happens, no one can make you laugh like family. There is a history of shared jokes and discussions of times gone by that can reduce you to streaming eyes and pee in your pants hilarity that compares with no other.

On the other hand, old wounds run deep and there are resentments that simmer and boil and cannot be undone by proximity of 3 to 4 hours over a pot roast. Fortunately, we have had only a few of those.

I have watched my sisters become wives, mothers and now grandmothers and I applaud their resiliance and commitment to the continuity of the family genetics.

I don't know how we all turned out so different but I'm glad to be here, watching it all unfold and knowing my place in the universe.

I am 3 of 5 and I am not borg, I am blessed.