My Sister.........

My sister is a character.........always has been, always will be and I love her to pieces. She has made us laugh til our sides ache and I have tons of memories in my growing up years as well as my adult life being with her at different times. As a young child, I loved when she would come home from Saskatoon for a weekend....I followed her around like a little puppy. She would do my hair and I could play dress-up in her beautiful clothes that she didn't want anymore. You see pictures in magazines of little girls dressing up in high heels, big hats and long, flowing dresses......that was me in her clothes!!!! I looked up to her and wanted to be just like her when I grew up. She went down to California to work and she stayed with my sister Gwen and her husband Bob. She met this handsome, young resident doctor, (a woman from their church who worked at the hospital where Ted was doing his residency introduced them), fell in love with this guy and married him. I was about 11 or 12 at the time of their wedding and he came to Canada in this red Mustang convertible bearing thoughtful gifts for his family - to - be and instantly made a hit with all his in-laws. As for me, I was incredibly shy of this person who was stealing my sister from me but also thought that the two of them were soooooo romantic!!!! Besides that, they asked me to be in the wedding party. How unbelievable was that!!!! He tried to make friends with me but I would have none of it........I think I was too in awe of him and therefore hardly spoke a word to him the whole time of the celebrations. That changed however in later years!!!!!

That is her husband in the red shirt. Anyway, I went out to North Van. one summer when their son, Stuart was about 21/2 yrs. of age and babysat for a month. That was an incredible, fun time for me and enjoyed being with them so much. Then when she was expecting her second child, I went out and lived with them for about 7 months, (this was after I had been at Bible School for a year so I was about 18 yrs. of age) looked after their little baby daughter, Jennifer as well as Stuart. I was their nanny. I loved it and learned so many things. I guess I was blown away by the fact that they trusted me enough to love and look after their children. My sister and I bonded so much at that time and it was good because she had left home to go to the city to work when I was just little so I really hadn't spent alot of time with her in my younger years. I grew to love her even more as we spent many hours together, shopping, talking, laughing, crying...... doing all the things that sisters do. It was an amazing time!

So, early in March of this year, she sends me this card that says in her handwriting, "Dear Shari Babe, this is to inform you that I can't possibly tell you when your birthday card is going to arrive from us ......... maybe in April.......but QUITE LIKELY it will arrive in the year 2007!!!!!!!"

This is what she does with all her sisters, sends them a pre-birthday card just being a tease so we never know when we are going to get the card but we know we are going to receive one eventually!!!!

I GOT MINE TODAY!!!! YIPPEE!!! Now I don't have to worry or fret that she has forgotton!!!!! Thank you, Florencie, my sister and forever friend!!!! I love you.