Sweet Sisterhood

Years ago, long before I had daughters and long before I was married, I was browsing through an antique shop in downtown Naperville and came across this photograph (above). In my eyes they are two sisters. I don't know who they are, or where they are from, but I had to buy this the minute I saw it. It reminded me of me and my sister - the way the older sister has her arms so protectively around the younger girl is both familiar and so endearing to me. I've often wondered about the girls in this picture - what their names were, where they lived, how did they interact with eachother. Don't you wish you knew the stories behind those old photographs that you've seen? I do. Especially this one.

This photo (above) is of my sister and me. I am blessed to have a sister. No matter what happens in this world and what happens in my life, I know that my sister is there for me. We may not always agree, but we care about each other enough to never walk away. My sister is my rock. She protects me to this day and constantly lifts me up when I am down. (K - if I haven't told you lately . . . . Thank you for all that you have done for me, and for all that you continue to do for me.) Yes, I am very blessed to have my sister.

And here are Katie and Ella, caught in a beautiful, touching moment on Katie's birthday this year. Tonight, I was folding clothes in the family room when I caught Katie and Ella in another truly tender moment that prompted this blog post on Sisterhood. Katie had just finished putting a bandaid on a small scrape she had on her leg, when Ella came up to see what she was doing. Ella immediately took quick action to try and identify anything that resembled a scrape on her leg, as she clearly was in need of some sister attention. Katie, being so observant and totally understanding what Ella was doing, decided to give her all the attention she needed. Katie picked up Ella (yes . . . she picked her right up) and placed her on the counter. (I watched the whole thing and didn't want to stop her - I wanted to see how far this would go). She immediately got to work - cleaning a little "scrape" on Ella's leg with a wet paper towel and small amount of soap. She ever so gently patted the area dry and gently blew on it to make sure it wasn't the least bit wet. All through this process Katie gently spoke to Ella, saying, "There, there, sweetie. You're going to be just fine. Sissy is taking care of you." And Ella gently replied, "Thank you, Katie." After the area was cleaned, Katie took out a bandaid (or "Dandaid", as Ella calls them) and put it on Ella's cut. Katie gently patted the bandaid and counted to 10 (I guess that's just something all good doctors do), and lifted Ellie off of the counter. She then said, "Now, I want you to take a sip of water and if you need me to replace this at any time, you just let me know." (Obviously, those were Ella's discharge orders.) Ella, in return, gave her a big hug and said, "Thank you, Katie. I love you." And I just about melted. . .

I was so proud of both of them. Katie for taking such amazing care of her baby sister, and Ella for remembering to thank her sister for what she did. Don't get me wrong - we aren't living in lala land here - about 10 minutes before this they were ready to beat each other up and I had to have an EMERGENCY FAMILY MEETING (I'll tell you about those another time - but they have to do with me making them both stand in front of the refrigerator and listen to me lecture.) However, soon as the meeting was over, they had this wonderful exchange. And for these few minutes, they were just about as kind and sweet to eachother as any mother could wish for. Life doesn't get any better than this. . .