Ode to my Big sis.

I am one of 6 children, 4 girls and 2 boys.  4 of us are still earth bound.  Of the 4 of us, I'm closest to my big sister.  I really can't say she's a big sister anymore.  She's rather small now, and I'm not about to call her oldest.  She's just Debbie.  I'm the middle child.  My sisters were before me and my brothers were younger.  In other words I'm the youngest daughter.   Debbie is a twin.  I never got a chance to know that sister.  She died 3 days after her birth.  They were identical and I have to say the thought of two of Debbie would have been cool!!!!!  I miss the thought of her.  Growing up Debbie always seemed larger than life.  She was 8 years older than me and seemed to be able to do all the cool stuff.   Poor thing used to have to babysit the rest of us, Bless her heart!  I know my younger brother and I gave her heck.  But you know what?  There was never a time when I wasn't welcome into her totally awesome room!  It had a huge stuffed "Luv Bug" worm and a pink fuzzy 78 record holder.  She still has that record holder by the way.  She would tell us Bible Stories and use voices.  She taught us camp songs and said funny things.   I even got to go see her and spend the night when she was in college, but I threw up all the junk food I had been eating and had to go home.   Having an 8 year difference in age meant I didn't know her as well when I was young.  She was practically grown by the time my memories started.  I just knew I loved her, and wanted to be like her.  I didn't know until I was about 18 how much like her I was.  I would tell people I was going to go to Russia and convert the KGB.  I just happened to speak that out loud at a talent show I was participating in and my mom said what few hairs my daddy had left turned grey.  Apparently Debbie had the same thought.  Its a funny story to us anyway.  As a new mom I watched how Debbie cared for her kids; Cooking from scratch, Homeschooling, Sewing, Crocheting.  She even knew that beans and grains made a complete protein!  WOW! Lol. In my eyes she was a way better mom than I was.  So just like before, I aspired to be just like her.  I was a single mom and she would watch my Baby Diva while I worked, but on my off times I was still over at her house.  We would sew, shop for fabric (A lot of fabric), go to the grocery store together, break down in the middle of drive thru with a car packed to the gills with kids and groceries.  What that hasn't happened to everyone?.  We laughed and laughed.  We had a yard sale together once before.  I think we would have made more money had we not shopped from each others stuff. Lol.  All my adult life, just about, we have been thick as thieves.  The sewing, baking, Thrift store shopping (that's our main thing right there), and marathon phone calls have been a staple of our life.

This morning, while going through some drawers and organizing stuff, I found a letter she wrote me last Christmas.  She had bought me a serger.

This Serger was (and is) awesome, but the letter is the treasure.  "When I am with you," she wrote "I face the world with a smile and a bit more fearless.  At the beginning, I was the big sister and you were the little sister, but now you are my best friend".  I sat on the floor and read this letter again this morning with tears running down my face.  She is one of my greatest blessings.  I could not and would not ask for a better big sister.  She is my best friend.