My Sister and Me

It may come as a surprise to many that I have a sister! She was 16 when I was born, and I was 2 when she had her first baby, needless to say, we didn't spend much time with each other. Ours was not the typical sister relationships. You see my memories of her are actually mostly of me visiting her and her husband in Idaho. I played with her children, she had 5(the top photo is her, her husband & her firstborn, along with our dad, mom Keith &I!)! While she, and my parents visited over dinner and such. 
While they were in the house being grown ups, I was outside with my nieces and nephews riding the calves (they lived on a dairy farm) or playing in the water, or giving kittens milk from one of the cows in the barn. But what I wasn't doing was getting to know her. One of my brothers called us bookends. She was the oldest, I am the baby, with 3 boys between us. Because our age difference was so great, coupled with the fact that she was married and started her family while I was still a toddler, we just never connected beyond birthday cards(that I still have a few of!!) and then those summer visits, with which I played with her children, I have very few memories of her.

I often think how I would have loved to have known her & been sisters in the way a lot of my friends have sisters. You know, the one who you tell your secrets to, borrow clothes from & get on each others nerves!!! That kind of relationship. But for us it just wasn't meant to be. About the time we would have had something in common (marriage) she was in a car accident, that left her in a assisted care facility for the remaining years of her life. I was just 19, newly married, perhaps just a few weeks, when the accident happened. 
Her children were much younger....from 5-17yrs, I believe. While I may feel the loss of never having had a relationship with her, it is nothing compared to what the rest of my family felt. Her children & husband...their loss was 100x worse than mine. My dad & her mother....again their loss was worse. Yes, she was alive, but the accident left her in a coma for a long time & once she was no longer in the coma the brain damage was such that her long term and short term memory were just not like yours our mine.  
Just this summer my nieces reminded me that it has been 5 years since she died.  She lived 20 years after the accident! She was a tough cookie that one! At the funeral I was blessed to hear so many fun stories of her life after the accident. Things like she still had a wicked sense of humor! She loved seeing her grand babies!! The most exciting thing was that my nephew was able to share the Lord with her & she accepted Him as her Savior! Not only is she in heaven with her new & perfect body, but I know that someday we will get to spend eternity together...getting to know each other, my sister & I!
K~