How to be a sister

It has been since 2018 that I have posted on my Blog. There has been enough time in between and enough going on for at least one or two posts. So here goes….

Last weekend I had a Zoom chat with 3 of my high school friends. When I got off the call, time felt fleeting. These were friends that I have know for over 50 years. 50 YEARS! I can’t even wrap my oldish head around that. We hadn’t spoken since Covid and had so much to catch up on. The hour flew by. We spoke of our families, children, parents and siblings. We spoke about health, disasters, and work. Only a brief chat and I felt inspired and enriched by our conversation. These 3 women are living full and interesting lives. Susan, a business owner, Linda, working with huge corporations from around the world and Carrie, a Travel Blogger,https://www.instagram.com/carriegreenzinn/. I’ve know Carrie the longest, since grammar school. She is so positive and excited about where she visits, it’s infectious. When I started my blog several years ago, she was so positive and encouraged me to keep going. At the time I was writing, it was because it was cathartic. I had a lot of baggage to unload. But looking back, maybe I wrote because I enjoyed the creative process. Thank you to Carrie for inspiring me to pick it up again. It might be 1, 2 or 3 posts. I will write till I and satisfied. So.... Here we go….

I might not be traveling, but everyday, my life is an adventure. From Joel’s open heart surgery to a flood in the basement to my brother being diagnosed with Alzheimers. (And that was only with in the last few months) I have lots to write about. My goal is to find the positive in the everyday. Turning lemons into lemonade, a flood into a purge, heart surgery into a new lease on life. So this is my attempt at being grateful for taking a breath, taking a step and taking a leap and (maybe a nap once in a while).

Starting with what has been the hardest thing to wrap my oldish brain around is my brother’s diagnosis. I think he would approve of this post. He is a truth teller. Always honest. When we were growing up, I would say he was honest to a fault. I was the good little lier and he was perfect big brother. My brother, Stephen, the love of my life. He makes me laugh the hardest, cry the most, be a better person. He is a lover of art, of love, of reading, of his family. His brain is a precious organ to anyone who knows him. Here is what I have learned this year knowing what I know now about Stephen: Never say no, read books, see the people that you love as much as you can, make art and eat delicious food. I know we all know this to be true. But when someone is forgetting a name or their favorite food, we concentrate that much harder for the person trying to remember and for me watching him trying to remember. I’m not just with him now, I am WITH him, routing for him, listening harder, loving all he does. I appreciate when he comes up with names and tells stories of past experiences and tells new ones. He is a words-smith, a writer, a storyteller, a comic, a sensitive man, witty, and curious. He is still all of these things. It’s very early in the diagnosis. There is a new drug that he hopes to go on, that can slow down the disease. He’s a perfect candidate for it and hopefully soon, he’ll be taking it.

For his 66th birthday this year I brought him to see “our” favorite play, Sweeney Todd. The day was perfect. We went to see art, ate delicious food, talked about art and talked about delicious food and ended the night by seeing the perfect production of the perfect play. Stephen is the leader of his life, he sees the reflexion of himself in our faces and what he will see is love. He's my hero. I will be there for this next chapter of his life and to hear his story. I am here to be a witness with an open heart. I love him deeply, no matter what.