Sister Will You?

Sister,

Sister, will you? Let me be the princess, keep all my secrets safe and sound, be my best friend forever?

When I saw these words painted on the wall of a bedroom shared by sisters, my heart eclipsed my age and all the vulnerability, loyalty, trust, responsibility and dependance of being and having sisters, returned.

It was only the first 18 years of our lives that we shared intimately with each other. That is, in the same house, with the same parents, the same trips to Disneyland and Yellowstone, the same Sunday afternoon trips to Baskin-Robbins, the shared memories of Christmas presents, cousins and dachsund puppies.

It has now been 27 years that I have shared the house with my husband, the dinner table, clothes and hair brushes with my own daughters. Time spent with sisters are weekends, holidays, or milestones: mother's upcoming 7oth birthday party-- yet there is always a place in my heart for my sisters.