My Sister's Birthday

I'm pretty sure, if I'm counting correctly, that this is a significant one for her.

As always, I'm late getting the present in the mail, but I've been thinking about the fact that my mother always told me, when my sister and I were fighting, that "someday I'd appreciate having a sister." In that spirit, I'd like to share ten gifts my sister has given me:

1. She painted a picture for me when she was in 8th or 9th grade. The picture shows children holding balloons. It's a narrow, long picture; entirely unique.

2. She baked me a Boston Cream Pie once, and sent it with my mother when she was visiting me at college.

3. She deigned to share an apartment with me for a short while just after I graduated from college; a little brownstone one bedroom with hardwood floors. It was my first apartment.

4. When we were young, we shared a room; she used to listen to my insomniac whisperings until she fell asleep.

5. She played the guitar and sang songs with me. Favorite duet: "Whispering Hope." (She sang alto.)

6. She let me take the crock from Grandma's house that said, "Jackson Creamery" on it.

7. She thought my stories were good (usually).

8. When we played Tarzan with the little boy down the street, I got to be Jane. She was Cheetah.

9. She let her daughter come to the North Shore with us, one of my favorite vacations, ever.

10. Laughing and singing are my favorite memories: it is good to have a sister.