Today I celebrate a woman who has been in my life for my entire life, my very first best friend, my playmate, my roommate, my go to person, my "I can't find my t-shirt, why did you take it out of my closet"?, my wanna strangle and wrestle me to death - sister Lisa.
She was my first real life baby doll. I can't remember the day she was born, but by the pictures I've seen I'd say I was pretty excited and over the moon over her. As we grew up, we did everything together. There wasn't a time that we weren't there for one another. We played with mom's make up, dressed up, played Barbie, road our Big Wheels, played at the beach, watched Saturday morning cartoons, plotted against our nanny and even attempted on several occasions to catch fireflies in the woods behind our trailer home. Christmas time was always our favorite and going to the carnival with mom and dad was always fun because we couldn't wait to see what Dad would win while playing carnival games.
We had an awesome, oblivious childhood, filled with laughter and the occasional fight here and there. As years progressed things weren't always so happy but even though we didn't have much we had each other and we always found a way to have fun.
Lisa was the first to learn how to swim, she was always much smarter than me and I envied that about her for much of my life. She had a great amount of patience as a young girl, I realized that attribute one particular summer, when I was 10 and she taught me how to swim. For a solid week, JR, Lisa and I climbed the fence to swim in the apartment’s nasty, unclean water just so that Lisa could teach JR and I how to swim. I cringe when I remember that there were not adults supervising us and we could have lost our lives, but that's what kids did back then - faced danger with a loss of abandonment. As my mom used to tell us "what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger", in this case I finally learned how to swim during that week and I have Lisa to thank for it!
We've not always been the best of friends, through hard times we fought a lot, however that never stopped me from coming to her defense when girls at boarding school were picking on her and I risked my neck, hanging 2 stories up out of the bedroom window valiantly fighting for my sisters honor in a brutal physical altercation with our friend Emily. I could say whatever I wanted to say about my sister, but if you do, you better watch your back!
We've shared many hard times together, the loss of our dad and much later the loss of both of our grandparents of whom we were very close. Our granddad would often pick on Lisa, but he always showed how much he cared by loving on her after.
We've also shared a lot of really great times as well, our years at Oakdale, our very first year living together at Grandmas, making new friends (that got us into a whole lot of trouble), the birth of our first nephews, our time in GA living together trying to make ends meet, Ray and my wedding, the addition of other nephews and nieces, every time we get back together after being thousands of miles apart for several years.
Today I honor my sister - She's smart, she's beautiful, she's loyal and dedicated to her family, she can face any situation that comes against her, she's tender hearted, she's hard working, she's a child of God, loved, adored and cherished by Jesus and by the rest of us who love her - She's Lisa - there's no one else like her. May God Bless you this day, my sister, on your birthday. He knew what He was doing when He created You and I'm so Thankful He did! I'm so VERY blessed to have you in my life and I simply could NEVER imagine my life without you.
With MUCHO AMORE!
Your Sis