An Update on My Sister

I have never used my blog as a personal journal, and while I may admire the courage of those of you who do, I am far too private a person to let the world into my stuff.

Those of you who have been following me for a while will know that when I do choose to share personal stuff, I always hide it behind a wall of humour, puzzling innuendos or cartoon metaphors.   Yet, when I wrote the post My Sister is Velma Dinkley and the follow-up posts, so many of you wrote me such kind and caring comments, that I feel I owe you an update.

My sister just left my home after spending a few days visiting with me.  It has been almost a year since she received her diagnosis of a brain tumour and what a year it's been!  So much worry, stress and heartache.

You need to know that my sister and I were both born from teen-aged mothers who choose adoption.  Our parents couldn't have children of their own and adopted us both as infants and showed us all the love that any parent could.  So, beyond sharing the typical sister stuff, we also have that in common.

In recent years,  my sister and I dealt with the death of our father, and two years later, the death of our mother.  So it's just her & I left from our nuclear family.  She matters to me.

I realize, as I'm typing this and attempting to put my words to my thoughts, (and deleting far more than I'm leaving) that over the course of the past year, my opinion of "fine" has changed.  Because my sister is "fine".  She survived.  She is still here with me, sharing in the way only sisters do: still laughing over stories from our past, still expressing her love and support for me, still as still strong-willed and determined as ever.

But she is not my Velma Dinkley.  She forgets things. She repeats things.  She has problems with motor skills. She's not self-reliant.

But she's still here.

So. . . thank you everyone who offered their prayers and their kinds words of support.  I can't express how much it meant to me, how much it mattered.

My big sister and me