Dear Readers,
There’s a special bond that siblings share, and it’s one that really can’t be duplicated with another person. Your siblings are people you’ve known your whole life. They have shared your parents, your bedroom sometimes, your experiences and many, many other things.
I have just one sibling, my sister, Mindi. She is about two and a half years younger than I am, and I can honestly say that I can’t remember anything about my life before she was in it. Because it was just the two of us, we formed an especially close bond. We’re not like other families, where if one does not get along with a particular sibling, there’s another one to play with or talk to. In many ways, I think that was a good thing.
I’ve always felt protective of Mindi. When she came home from the hospital as a newborn, I called her my baby. She developed pneumonia shortly after, and I, at 2 1/2 years old, was distraught. I couldn’t go to the hospital to see her, so I didn’t understand what had happened to my baby. My mother has told me often how overjoyed I was when Mindi came home, and she had to remind me of it several times during our teenage years, when my sister and I had our disagreements.
When we were little girls, my sister and I played with dolls together and played school and dress-up and all the usual childhood games. When we were teenagers, we shared clothes, rides to school and watched movies together. As adults, we have shared child-rearing advice, confided in each other and, as always, we’ve made each other laugh whenever we need it.
No one makes me laugh like Mindi does, and I think it’s because we’ve shared so much. I love my sister very much, and I’ll always consider her one of my best friends.
Love,
Kate Marchbanks