Everything I learned about life I learned from having a sister!

Not so many years ago we were introduced to a little booklet that told us that all we ever needed to know about life we learned in kindergarten. Since I didn't go to kindergarten, I must have missed out on what I needed to know to make me a proper adult. I was so disappointed!

Then I read an article that declared all we need to know about life we could learn from reading T-shirts. I read lots of them. Like ...  If they don’t have chocolate in Heaven, then I ain’t going. At my age, I've seen it all, done it all, heard it all, I just can't remember it all.  My mother is a travel agent for guilt trips.

I could surely relate to most of them, especially that part about “can’t remember it all.”

But I couldn’t read every tee shirt in the world so I must not know everything about life after all. Then I realized that maybe I’d learned my lessons another way. I knew those who went to kindergarten or those who create tee shirts don’t have a thing on me. Because I learned everything I needed to know about life from having a sister.

She’s been gone now for more than a year but I still value all those life lessons I learned from having her in my life for sixty years!

In our younger days my sister and I learned such things as tolerance ... that would be how to hold my temper in check and not kill her graveyard dead for cutting up my brand new Playtex Living Girdle. We learned that group therapy can be beneficial ... that’s when the two of us ganged up on our brother and made him wish he was graveyard dead.

Yep, Sister and I shared a lot of lessons along the life’s journey.

Such as:

A good long talk can cure almost anything. A good long visit with Sister could cure anything from baby blues to insomnia. Baby blues is that horrid feeling right after a child is born, right after they go to school the first time, when they loose their first tooth or when they graduate from high school. Insomnia can be the result of menopause, PMS or empty nest syndrome or just plain needing to talk a while after reading the best romance novel in the whole world.

Listening is just as important as talking. Sister could cook supper, fold the laundry, clean up the grandkid’s messy face and wash the dishes with the telephone hung on her shoulder as she listens. When it’s over she’ll say, “I know just how you feel, honey.” And the tone of her voice is sincere.

A sister is better than a therapist and cheaper, too! She knew about the time I skipped church and used the offering money to buy gasoline to drag Main. She didn't judge me but more importantly she didn't tell Mama or Aunt Ruth, who already thought I was an abomination unto the Lord for my mini skirts!

Sisters are like wine ... they get better with age. We endured all the problems of teenage marriages, children, grandchildren, every diet every created, wars and rumors of wars, high school reunions, shopping for a bathing suit. Yep, I’d say she was every bit as good as one of those fancy French wines with a faded label.

Great minds think alike, especially when they are sisters! My sister and I could finish each other’s sentences. Most of the time we don’t even need to talk. A flick of the hand, a raising of the eyebrow and suddenly everything was funny, or else we’d burst into tears at the memories we’d just evoked about the day our Granny went to heaven.

Everyone needs someone with whom to share their secrets. We never wanted to talk to either of us about those pills that make you tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. We’d have had to bite our tongues off and I’m not sure they would grow back.

Calories don’t’ count when you are having lunch (or any food) with your sister. That is the absolute, guaranteed gospel. Just go to lunch with your sister, order up a double order of fries, a chocolate malt and giggle about everything that’s happened the last six weeks. You won’t weigh a pound more the next day. Do not try this with your husband/boyfriend/fiancé. For one thing, they wouldn’t be interested listening to anything that makes you giggle. If you don’t giggle all the fat grams goes straight to your thighs.

You can never have too many shoes. Only a Sister or maybe a best girlfriend could understand this statement. How could a mere person of the male gender ever understand the way it feels to open a closet door and find shoe boxes stacked to the ceiling. There’s just something that warms the soul in knowing that no matter what life throws at us we will be able to choose a pair of shoes and keep on walking.

Gems may be precious, but a sister’s friendship is priceless. And I miss my sister every single day!