This week’s theme prompt is Sisters, "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." Any families made up of lots of sisters? Now is a great time to tell their story! Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.
I decided to tell the story of my sisters, I have five and I am the youngest of my sisters and my entire family. We use to share one bedroom in our three-bedroom house. We had three sets of bunk beds. The older sisters slept on top and the younger sisters on the bottom. I remember going to girl scout camp and it felt just like home with all the bunk beds. ;-)
My two oldest sisters are born just shy of one year of each other. Thus, they are the same age for 5 days. The two middle sisters are born on the same day, five years apart. and my fifth sister and I are born less than a year apart and are the same for age for 16 days.
My three oldest sisters are from my mother’s first marriage, her husband died as a result of a tragic work-related accident. He was a welder and was working on a skyscraper building in Chicago. He was climbing up the safety ladder and someone forgot to weld the top of the ladder and thus it pulled away from the building and he fell over 500 feet to his death. So tragic, he left behind 5 children and a pregnant wife. He died the day after my oldest sister’s birthday. My mother gave birth to her sixth child, a son on their wedding anniversary.
My mom remarried and had three more children, all girls. Therefore, I have full sisters and half-sisters, however in my family we only use the term “half” when explaining why they have a different maiden name than my own. Otherwise, we always use sister or brother, no “half”.
My second oldest sister, Maureen had a daughter out of wedlock and gave her up for adoption. This was back in the early 1970’s, so she was sent away to have her baby and thus wasn’t able to attend our oldest sister’s wedding. My youngest child, a girl was born on my sister’s daughter’s birthday.
Unfortunately, Maureen developed breast cancer and died in 1998, only about 7 months after my youngest child was born. Maureen was an artist and has painted many beautiful paintings and has done many lovely drawings both in black and white and color. I am blessed to have a few of her pieces of art hanging in my home. Maureen seemed to be the glue who held the family together. She was the one who would keep in contact with everyone and keep everyone informed of what is happening in each other’s lives. After her death, I felt our family slowly drifting apart.
My oldest sister, for whatever reason doesn’t talk to me, doesn’t want to talk to me and it took a while for me to realize this is on her and not me. I can’t make anyone like me, so I just have to surround myself with those who do. I once was staying with my oldest brother, helping him recovery from a broken hip and my oldest sister called and I answered the phone because it was a landline in the kitchen. I could see it was her based on caller id, when I said hello, she hung up. I had to take the phone to my brother and he called her back. I was shocked that she couldn’t just asked for my brother, I would not have forced her to talk to me, but would had given the phone to my brother. She knew I was taking care of my brother, so she really should not been surprised that I answered the phone. Anyway, I guess that line from the song "Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..." is wrong.
My two “full” sisters were both born with Intellectual disabilities. I have set them up into an apartment. They know how to cook and clean. They go for walks, maybe too many even when the weather isn’t really for walking. I do all their shopping, take them to appointments and make sure their prescriptions are filled.
I wish I had a group picture of my sisters and me but this really wasn’t something that was done. As we got older, I don’t think we were all in the same place much, maybe for Christmas and Father’s Day. My two sister’s who share a birthday, the youngest was born on Father’s Day, my dad’s first Father’s Day. Therefore, Father’s Day is a big day in our family, its usually our big summer get-together. Of course, not so much anymore. It also was near when my oldest sister got married, then my oldest brother’s daughter’s only child was born near Father’s Day.
I know my family isn’t unique, might be a little dysfunctional but still is my family.
No comments:
Post a Comment