Diana

The introduction of my sister and her family is long overdue. I know I’ve mentioned Diana here and there and even had a photo from Mother’s Day to share but that hasn’t even touched the surface.

The older I get, the more layers there are that unfold and unwind and thankfully cause more fits of laughter. Laughter is probably the biggest bond my sister and I share. We just “get” each other. I’ve found through the years that my sense of humor isn’t always understood by other people but I know that I can always call Diana and she’ll laugh just as hard if not harder than I do and have something equally funny if not even more hysterical to add.

We’ve been told we look alike but not by our mother. She thinks we look drastically different. Each our own person, which is true, but I have been out and had a total stranger walk up to me and ask if my name was Diana. Turned out it was an old classmate of hers who knew that they somehow knew me. Funny how genetics work.

We grew up telling people that we’re almost 9 years apart. This is something that our mother has been telling us and the world our whole lives. Just a few months ago, I was figuring out how old my sister was and something just wasn’t adding up so I asked her her age, and low and behold, we’re only 7 1/2 years apart. WHAT??!! YOU’RE KIDDING!!!! If you can only imagine, a fit of laughter burst from the both of us. How had we gone our entire lives, knowing how horrible our mother was at math and just took for granted that we were 9 1/2 years apart?? THAT is beyond me. I mean really!?!

Thankfully, my sister and I talk on the phone almost every day. For 5 minutes or for an hour, while driving to and from places or doing laundry, while hustling people out the door in the morning or sitting and enjoying a cup of tea/coffee. It wasn’t always like this. We were close when I was little but that changed as we both grew older and were in completely different phases of life. In fact I can remember my parents telling me how she was the only sister I had and that their one wish was that we could just get along. That was around my late teens/early twenties and her mid twenties/early thirties. It can be tough when your so far apart in age. Our lives were so different for so long. We had very little to relate to. But now, she has four kids ages 12, 13, 15 and 16 and I have two and the gap that used to be so wide is shrinking. Thank goodness!!

What I do know about my sister is that when I was a little girl and scared at night it was her bed that I would crawl into. When a boyfriend broke up with me it was her that I called to cry to. She was the one who handed me the keys to my first car. When I was pregnant she would talk me through my fears and had me drinking orange juice at 2 in the morning to make sure the baby was alright. (it worked!) And now, when my boys do something that I don’t know how to handle or one of our fish dies and I need someone to talk to, she’s there. Right on the other end of the phone and somehow, always knows just what to say.

There’s nothing quite like having a sister and I thank God for her every day. Especially with everything going on with our mom. It’s been wonderful to have each other to talk to, to cry with and of course, to laugh with. One of our biggest fits of laughter was after we photographed my family in “the wig”. Miles just had us both on the floor. It was so great and healing and wonderful for our family and for mom, that Diana made me promise to bring the camera when I drove out to bring mom to her house so that I could photograph her family in the wig.

Well, I did just that and now, we not only have my family documented in “the wig“, but we have my sisters. Let me introduce in order: Trevor, Blake, Raina, Ayla, Brian and Diana….