The song was made famous back in 1954 when two blonde bombshells played singers in the classic movie White Christmas. And we grew up singing that phrase,
Lord, help the mister who comes between me and my sister. And Lord, help the sister who comes between me and my man.
I don't think any of us ever shared boyfriends, but we've certainly shared everything else. Clothes, makeup, cars, kids, food, diseases......
Let me tell you about my sisters.
I have three of them. All younger. All royal pains in the butt when we were growing up, but now I treasure their friendships.
I am the second child of 5. I have an older brother and when I was born, my parents had the "perfect family-- one child of each gender." For some strange reason, they didn't realize how good they had it with just the two of us and chose to have more snotty nosed, whiny "curtain climbers" just to make my life miserable. Since they were all 3 girls, I had to learn to share---my room, my clothes, my dolls, my books, and all the attention that had previously been lavished on me. To add to it, they all had issues.
I was 2 when sister # 1 came on the scene. I really don't remember back that far, but it couldn't have been all bad. My brother and I took care of her. She never had to learn to talk because we anticipated her every need and basically talked for her. We've heard the story many times how when my mom was trying to potty train her, my brother and I would change her wet panties and hide them under the bed so she wouldn't get in trouble. I can remember jumping on our bed and she got dizzy and fell down our stairs and had to have stitches in her chin. That was right around the time that she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. And that's when our lives changed. She spent weeks at a time in the children's hospital in downtown Chicago because it was very difficult to keep her blood sugars under control. She came close to dying many times. As an adult, she still has Type 1 or Juvenile Diabetes, which is very very serious. The story of Steel Magnolias could be written about her....she has 2 biological children, and both girls put her life in jeopardy, but her philosophy is much like Shelby's: I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special. Now, she has 6 kids---2 biological daughters and 4 adopted sons. The ages of her kids span from 16 to 1. She has recently been placed on the kidney transplant list and is awaiting a match and just very recently, she started dialysis, which is really scary for all of us. I am waiting right now to find out if I may be a possible match for her....
With all of our kids in activities, and her with 2 very young ones, we don't always get much time to talk. She lives in Illinois and I'm in Texas, so it's not often that we see each other. In fact, sadly enough, I've not even met the 2 youngest. Nor has she been to visit me in my new house ( that I moved into almost 4 years ago). When we do get together, or have a few minutes of quiet where we can actually talk, we certainly enjoy catching up with each other.
Sister #2 was adopted into our family when I was 10. She had been with us, though, for 4 years by that time. My parents were foster parents, and she came to our house when she was 4 days old...straight from the hospital. My parents usually got boy foster children, so I was ecstatic to finally get a little girl. I felt like she was my very own baby and oh how I loved her. Since there were 6 years difference in our ages, we drifted apart when I got in high school. But now, she and I are very close. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and 3 children, the youngest of which is only 3 weeks younger than Trey.
Sister number 3 came along when I was 10. My brother and I wanted her to be a boy so badly, we dressed her in bib overalls, put her curly red hair in braids and called her Joey. So needless to say, she was quite a tomboy when she was young. :o) Since Jeff & I were so much older than she, we were already out of the house by the time she went to elementary school. I was in college and he was in the Air Force. So we weren't there in her "formative" years.....and sometimes I think that was to her detriment. Not that we were anything special or that we had parenting skills at our young age that might have changed the outcome of her life, but because we had been a vital part of her early years and then we moved away. anyway, she made some bad choices in high school and that resulted in consequences that totally changed her life plan. She became a mom during her sophomore year in high school and was unable to lead the kind of easy lifestyle that we led at the same age. Being a single mom made college more difficult and if it hadn't been for my parents, she probably wouldn't have been able to pull her life together like she has. She became a paralegal and worked for many years in a presitigious law firm in Chicago. Recently, she went to part time so that she could spend more time and energy on her foundation, Melanoma Support & Education Foundation, which she started after she was diagnosed with stge 1 melanoma a few years ago. Today, she's looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild-- a girl due in July and her wedding that will be later that same month, while she fights another battle with auto-iommune deficiencies which are probably caused by her melanoma. She and I work together on her foundation. Recently we spent the weekend in Austin and had a blast! It was so nice to have a weekend with just the two of us....not worrying about the kids, jobs, etc.
I truly love my sisters.
Lord, help the mister who comes between me and my sister. And Lord, help the sister who comes between me and my man.
I don't think any of us ever shared boyfriends, but we've certainly shared everything else. Clothes, makeup, cars, kids, food, diseases......
Let me tell you about my sisters.
I have three of them. All younger. All royal pains in the butt when we were growing up, but now I treasure their friendships. I am the second child of 5. I have an older brother and when I was born, my parents had the "perfect family-- one child of each gender." For some strange reason, they didn't realize how good they had it with just the two of us and chose to have more snotty nosed, whiny "curtain climbers" just to make my life miserable. Since they were all 3 girls, I had to learn to share---my room, my clothes, my dolls, my books, and all the attention that had previously been lavished on me. To add to it, they all had issues.
I was 2 when sister # 1 came on the scene. I really don't remember back that far, but it couldn't have been all bad. My brother and I took care of her. She never had to learn to talk because we anticipated her every need and basically talked for her. We've heard the story many times how when my mom was trying to potty train her, my brother and I would change her wet panties and hide them under the bed so she wouldn't get in trouble. I can remember jumping on our bed and she got dizzy and fell down our stairs and had to have stitches in her chin. That was right around the time that she was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. And that's when our lives changed. She spent weeks at a time in the children's hospital in downtown Chicago because it was very difficult to keep her blood sugars under control. She came close to dying many times. As an adult, she still has Type 1 or Juvenile Diabetes, which is very very serious. The story of Steel Magnolias could be written about her....she has 2 biological children, and both girls put her life in jeopardy, but her philosophy is much like Shelby's: I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special. Now, she has 6 kids---2 biological daughters and 4 adopted sons. The ages of her kids span from 16 to 1. She has recently been placed on the kidney transplant list and is awaiting a match and just very recently, she started dialysis, which is really scary for all of us. I am waiting right now to find out if I may be a possible match for her....
With all of our kids in activities, and her with 2 very young ones, we don't always get much time to talk. She lives in Illinois and I'm in Texas, so it's not often that we see each other. In fact, sadly enough, I've not even met the 2 youngest. Nor has she been to visit me in my new house ( that I moved into almost 4 years ago). When we do get together, or have a few minutes of quiet where we can actually talk, we certainly enjoy catching up with each other.
Sister #2 was adopted into our family when I was 10. She had been with us, though, for 4 years by that time. My parents were foster parents, and she came to our house when she was 4 days old...straight from the hospital. My parents usually got boy foster children, so I was ecstatic to finally get a little girl. I felt like she was my very own baby and oh how I loved her. Since there were 6 years difference in our ages, we drifted apart when I got in high school. But now, she and I are very close. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and 3 children, the youngest of which is only 3 weeks younger than Trey.
Sister number 3 came along when I was 10. My brother and I wanted her to be a boy so badly, we dressed her in bib overalls, put her curly red hair in braids and called her Joey. So needless to say, she was quite a tomboy when she was young. :o) Since Jeff & I were so much older than she, we were already out of the house by the time she went to elementary school. I was in college and he was in the Air Force. So we weren't there in her "formative" years.....and sometimes I think that was to her detriment. Not that we were anything special or that we had parenting skills at our young age that might have changed the outcome of her life, but because we had been a vital part of her early years and then we moved away. anyway, she made some bad choices in high school and that resulted in consequences that totally changed her life plan. She became a mom during her sophomore year in high school and was unable to lead the kind of easy lifestyle that we led at the same age. Being a single mom made college more difficult and if it hadn't been for my parents, she probably wouldn't have been able to pull her life together like she has. She became a paralegal and worked for many years in a presitigious law firm in Chicago. Recently, she went to part time so that she could spend more time and energy on her foundation, Melanoma Support & Education Foundation, which she started after she was diagnosed with stge 1 melanoma a few years ago. Today, she's looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild-- a girl due in July and her wedding that will be later that same month, while she fights another battle with auto-iommune deficiencies which are probably caused by her melanoma. She and I work together on her foundation. Recently we spent the weekend in Austin and had a blast! It was so nice to have a weekend with just the two of us....not worrying about the kids, jobs, etc.
I truly love my sisters.
