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Life Notes: Sisters Share Unbreakable Bondby Missy Goodwin "Sisters share the scent and smells...the feel of a common childhood." - Pam Brown I remember thinking that my oldest sister was the coolest person ever born. When I was little, I would watch her slather strands of her hair in Dippity-Do, rolling each section as precisely as possible on plastic rollers the size of orange juice cans. After spending what seemed like hours under the big hair dryer that covered almost her entire head, she would remove all the rollers and tease her hair until it was as pouffy as possible. Then she would carefully work and pick until it became as straight as a board. Although I couldn't quite comprehend this process of rolling your hair only to make it straight again, I was convinced that I knew what it must be like to watch a real live movie star getting ready for a photo shoot. And that was just hair - -Ohhh, the things she could do with make-up! I was all of six years old when she graduated from high school, and in my eyes she positively exuded sophistication and style. I remember many an afternoon, singing along with her 8-track tapes of The Carpenters and The Fifth Dimension, as she would take me to "get a coke" in her lime green, two-door Grand Prix with the white vinyl roof. I felt very cool. The number two sibling in our all-girl line-up is four years older than I. I remember coveting most of her clothes, so waiting for hand-me-downs was not always an easy thing to do. I helped myself to her make-up, her clothes (that didn't quite fit me yet), and pretty much anything else that struck my fancy. For the most part, she patiently bore this burden and would try to keep up with her stuff as best she could. Of course, I used to fall deeply and hopelessly in love with each and every one of her boyfriends. I made it my goal to be just as intrusive and obnoxious (although I wouldn't have termed it that at the time) as possible when one of her suitors came to call. In my mind, I just knew that the boyfriend secretly returned my feelings and was only biding his time with my sister until I was of dating age. Now that I think of it, I'm not really sure how she allowed me to survive past junior high. When we were growing up, I never thought much about what my sisters and I would be doing at this point in our lives. I never gave a thought to what our relationships with each other would be. If the truth were known, we probably gave more thought to keeping track of our friends through the years than we did each other. After all, your friends in high school are the ones who really care about you, and will unconditionally put up with you…right? Maybe sometimes -- but more often than not, we lose touch with our high school friends, then make new friends in college, only to lose track of them as well. This cycle with friends often repeats itself with each stage in our lives. People come in and out of our lives, and while some of them we may actually stay in touch with, a sister is someone with whom you are bonded (or stuck with!) for life. She may not be someone you would have even chosen to be around long enough to really get to know, but thanks to God and His infinite wisdom, you didn't have a choice. As far as with my sisters and me, somehow through the whole growing up process, which often included angry shouts, verbal abuse, crying, laughing - lots of laughing - and even a few physical altercations, I managed not only to survive the experience but through the years I also have come to a startling realization -- I actually LIKE my sisters!! Who knew? Who knew that one day I would actually think of them as friends? I wonder if they're as shocked as I am .... Life Notes: Complete List 2004 2003 The Life Notes articles are written by staff of Louisiana Methodist Children's Home and are published in The Ruston Daily Leader. | |||
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