My Sister

Janet.....

I went to see my sister tonight. She is ten years younger than myself. But, she is very frail and hardly leaves the house because she suffers from anxiety. She spends most of her time making jewelry and cross-hatch tableclothes like mother did. She has a stint in her heart, she is losing her hair, she has an implant that reminders her to breathe at night. I want to make her all better, but know I can’t. All I can do is visit and tell her stories and hopefully make her feel better. She used to sleep in my bedroom when I was 12 and she was 2. She was with me when I found out that my first husband cheated on me. She still has nightmares about it. I wonder if that causes some of her anxiety. It was a bad time for both of us. She was a foster mother to three abused girls. When she had to return them to the “system”, she couldn’t and ended up adopting all three of them. She spent so much trying to keep the girls so they would not be abused any more. Now one of the girls blames her for everything that goes wrong with her. It breaks her heart. I wish I could make her all better! She married a guy who was the son of a farmer. She said she would marry him as long as he would not become a farmer like his dad. He has been a farmer ever since, and they live on a farm. She has lived with the animals, her four sons, and three adopted children for many years. None of her sons wanted to be farmers, so they moved away. Janet has had a hard life. She is still my sister. I think about her a lot! She will always be in my heart.