June 2 - My Sister

My next best friend was and is my sister Jeanette.  We are “twins” for 5 days between her birthday and mine every year.  From the moment she was born she became my shadow.  When she learned to walk she would run behind me, her little diaper flapping because they were always a little big for her.  My parents would call her Uncas to my Chingachgook and the neighbours would grin.  When we were 3 and 2 Mom would give me money and her large tote and off we would go to the store (only a few houses down from our apartment building) and I could remember to order 4 items, pay for them and tote them home with Uncas, I mean Jeanette, behind me! 

As we got older and 3 brothers were born I always said “my sister” to such a degree that when the youngest one was born it took at least 4 years before I could shake off saying “my sister” as though there was only one.  But because of the 14 year gap between Charlotte and I in some ways during those teenage years there still was only one sister.  Jeanette and I would play together even when we were outdoors and amongst other kids.  We were often a team and would organize the other girls to play rather intricate games that included acting.  I recall one time Jeanette and her girls were the Indians and my team was the fair maidens in a stage coach.  Jeanette was so convincing at attempting to scalp us that one of my gals screamed and ran home to her mother.  She wasn’t allowed to play with us any longer.  (true story)
We would be so intense into our game that oftentimes common sense went by the wayside (well, I only remember one really bad moment when I drew with magic marker on 2 of my friends and both their mothers were mad at me for over a month and I got a terrific scolding from one of them before going  home and being scolded by Mom.  How was I to know the ink wouldn’t wash off?  Okay maybe I shouldn’t  have done their faces.  My bad)

When Jeanette became a teenager we got into a bit of girl rivalry and our relationship sometimes was a little rocky until she got married at 20.  After that the friendship was back to full force and never has a cross word been spoken since that time.  She was my safety net when my parents moved west and I finished university as her boarder.  Many a day we would sit at the living room window and watch twin boys (and other kids) going off to school while we ate our cookie breakfast with our coffee.  Then off I would go to catch the greyhound bus to Waterloo.  I was usually home before the husband and we would watch the young and ridiculous and already in those days we would complain about the storylines being repetitive and unimaginative. 
When I graduated and moved west I spent the first few vacations flying east every November to spend it with My Sister.
She wins the Best Sister Ever award, always there with unconditional love.  (OK and a lot of admiration – who can resist that, I ask you?)