Like a Sister - Janet, 64

Like a Sister

Janet, 64

I only had one sibling, a brother, who was seven years younger than me.  I used to think about having a sister and how much fun that would be.

As I recall my childhood days, I realize that my cousin Linda was like my sister, filling that void I had for a close sister playmate.

We would play games outside like Hopscotch, Mother May I and Freeze. On warm July nights we would catch lightning bugs and put them in a jar with grass.  There was never a dull moment when we were together.

I have years of memories, but there are two that are very special among them all.  The first was our bedtime ritual when we had sleep-overs.  “I’ll rub your arm fifty times, then you rub mine fifty times.” One of us always suggested this so we would get sleepy; however, Linda would fall asleep after my fifty gentle strokes on her arm.  She could not, or pretended she could not, wake up to give me my turn!  And rarely was I the one to be first!

The second memory I have is when we were about seven-years-old. Our parents came to a church service where we were the featured “vocalists.”  Our special song was “Jesus Loves Me.”  Little dresses and fancy socks with ruffles made us feel like princesses as we walked hand-in-hand to the platform.  The pianist started playing—our cue to sing.  Instead of breaking into song, we looked at each other and broke into uncontrollable giggling. Someone had to come and remove us off the platform from our singing debut. We laughed the whole way down the steps as we were led away!

Now, many years later, we are blessed to be neighbors living next door to each other.  We still laugh a lot, only now it is mostly about our senior aches and pains and times of forgetfulness!  It is still fun to be with Linda. I love you, Cuz!  Like my sister.