Truly Blessed
By Alice Collins
Some gifts in life come wrapped in bright red bows, and some gifts share your bedroom, your Elvis records and the late-night giggles.
We call that kind of gift a sister.
When you're a child, a sister is a wonderful playmate, sharing bride dolls, chicken pox, matching plaid jumpers and a Crisco can filled with pennies to help Mommy and Daddy "buy" a baby brother.
As little girls, sisters cry over the paddle mom swings with gusto, argue over who gets the rich deposit money from the lucrative pop bottles a favorite aunt and uncle save for them, and scheme over plans to sell their storybooks so they can buy a special anniversary gift for Mom and Dad.
When the teen years approach, sisters share one thing in common and that is fighting. Fights over bathroom time, who's to do the dishes, telephone calls, who told Mom and Dad "who" was in a parked car smooching with "you know who," the angora sweater they both want to wear the same night to the dance out at St. Sabina, and just about everything from A to Z.
As pimples give way to engagement rings, sisters share a late-night soda and their dreams, the dividing of the lingerie drawer, the solemnity of the wedding march and the good-bye tears to a chapter of life that has ended.
When buggies and basketballs begin to fill their lives, sisters exchange recipes for 101 ways to cook ground beef. They swap maternity clothes, cuddle nieces and nephews, weep over children's mistakes, travel over mountains and mosquito-laden lakes to vacation together, and hold each other close when happiness is overwhelming or grief overpowering.
Sisters can be aunts, wives, mothers or grandmothers, but if your life has been truly blessed, a sister can be your friend.
I know, for my sister, Jo, is my friend.