A Little Sister Time

When a sister comes to visit, all the way from California, she brings a lot of baggage with her. And mine had a large gold “G” on hers so it was easy to pull off the airport conveyor belt. Inside were many nifty compartments. Let me tell you about my faves.

Mom – one of them especially for her. It’s been three years since she died, on Mother’s Day weekend, and this was a sad compartment to open. We re-hashed it together because we were together when it happened. Shari and I were boarding a plane in Boston when another sister, Wendy, called to tell us Mom had died. We couldn’t look at each other. Surreal doesn’t come close to describing the moment. We’d been on our way to Mom to help care for her. Didn’t make it.

Everybody else – It was great to hear about all that goes on out west while I zip along doing my thing here in the east. We have a huge family and pretty much every member got a chance to be a momentary star in our after dark, sit-on-the bed, discussions.  Quite edifying and those of you with sisters will relate. Right?  

Religion and Politics – Yeah, the world is a much better place because of the recent Valatie Summit. The White House interrupted a few times, but we steadfastly held the Vatican off while we drew up our plans for world peace and renewed our support for capitalism (a full bodied Merlot helped in our mediations). We only broke briefly for showers and grooming, specifically the hair, which we both still have a lot of. Yeah,gotta look good for these summits. It’s in the handbook.

My family – Kids and grandkids alike love Aunt Shari who greets them with laughter, hugs, and an exuberant curiosity about their lives. Sierra, at three, wasn’t quite sure what to make of all this, but it was the photo of her great burst of laughter while looking through the music book with Shari, that might go viral next Tuesday and garner a million views. I took the pic – just sayin’. No, I don’t hire out.

There were other, lesser, bits of baggage, but you don’t want to be reading until sunset now do  you? And now she’s off to Texas visiting our remaining brother, Tim. I’m sure he’ll probe the contents of her “G” bag, too. He’s a talker. It might even be necessary to get a small auxillary bag for her trip back to Cali. Gotta put those memories somewhere.

Bye, Shari. ‘Til next time – love you.