Sisters

Thirty-seven years ago today, I could hear my father running through the house about 4AM. He came into my room and said that he was taking Mom to the hospital to have the baby and would call me when it was born. Back in those days, no one knew the gender of the baby until it came. Mom said that Dad went running into the hospital yelling, "She has them fast!" About an hour later, Dad called to say that I had a baby sister. I woke my brothers to tell them. We were all pretty excited. After school that day, I walked to the hospital (well over a mile) to see Mom and my new baby sister. She was not all that I had hoped. Her hair was gooky and she had Uncle Eli's upper lip - scary. She was long and thin like a snake. I told Mom that she was not very pretty. What does a twelve year old know? My parents let me name her Kathryn Lee, because I had been pulling for a sister for a long time. She turned out beautiful and still is. As most of you know, it is a game between my brothers and sister to call each other on our birthdays trying to be the first caller. This morning while I was planning this post, my sister called me (I had told her that it was expensive to call my cell phone while in Canada). She said that she was not going to let me get away with not talking to her on her birthday. Pete was the first to call this morning - he wins again. I wish I could pull out an old photo of us - like the one where I am standing with my date to some formal event when I was sixteen and my date is holding Kathy. I thought she was a pest, but what does a sixteen year old know - she turned out pretty well. You can see last years old photo of us in the August 2006 archives. Happy birthday, Kathy!