Whosits Into Whatchamacallits

My sister and I have always been close. There is a picture of us somewhere where I am holding her for the first time and I feel like I remember that moment. I was in love with my new baby sister right from the start.

She was always around and I didn’t mind. She was at my hockey games and tournaments as a kid, my college graduation as an adult, when my girls were born, and because our birthdays are a week apart, it has been common for us to share a cake and to celebrate together.

My sister wasn’t able to have kids of her own, but the love she has for her animals, and the role model she has been for our girls, exemplifies the maternal skills she has always possessed. She frequently visited extended family in nursing homes, helped take care of other people’s family, raised kids with the love, support, and guidance as if they were her own, and is always quick to lend a hand wherever she can.

She works hard, loves deeply, and can turn a whosit into a whatchamacallit, and can make a whatsit just like new again. There really isn’t anything she can’t do.

Sometimes we just don’t see how much we are loved, but I am here to tell you the love that surrounds my sister and the awe in what she can do with two sticks, or her resilience to get back up when it seems there is always someone there to push you back down, is inspiring. 

She always tells others how proud of them she is, but I hope she knows how proud of her we are. 

None of us is perfect, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t all that and a bag of chips in another’s eyes.