Meet My Sister, Barbara

 

Number six in the family is Barbara. Barbara is six years older than I am. All of the olders ones were two years or less apart, but there are four years between Lois and Barbara. Mom had a miscarriage two years after Lois was born; so Barbara was another planned baby, who really came right on time.

I love all of my siblings, each for different reasons, but I probably feel really the closest to Barbara.

In some ways, Barb is different from the rest of us. For one thing, she has an IQ of 165. Others of us have some artistic talents in the family, but Barbara is an artist. She paints in watercolor, oil, and acrylic; she does ink and pen sketches and charcoal drawings, portraits, landscapes, and caricatures; she loves working with textiles and makes beautiful wall hangings; she also makes unique pieces of jewelry; and she writes. Someday perphaps I'll get permission to share some of her writing here.

Barbara supports herself with her art. She, too, bought a mobile home when I was 14 and moved it onto the Northwest section of my parents' land; so she and Lois have stayed close to home all these years. About 12 years ago she built a house on that section of property. She also helps care for Mom and Alton; she and Lois divvy up the work, Barbara usually caring for the lawns and orchard.

Barbara is the other one of my sisters who almost always had a horse when I was younger; she's the one who taught me to ride. She and Lois taught me to swim in a swimming hole in a creek near our home, and Barbara is the one who taught me to read and write before I started school, to write in cursive by the time I was in the second grade, and to do multiplication and long division by the time I was in the third grade.

She is a very private person. She has never married and only rarely dated. Barbara is just usually slow to warm up to new people; she likes her privacy and does not like going out into crowds. As a matter of fact, Dennice and I have served as her representatives when she has had work in art galleries. She has actually gotten better in that area, though, and will often surprise us by interacting with strangers in ways she never used to. There is nothing timid about her or backward; she just prefers to be with family or alone. She is smart, well-read, well-spoken, funny, generous, and very deep.

There have been times when she and I have been in sync in our thoughts and opinions, so much so that we can catch one another's eyes and have a perfect, immediate understanding. That has happened between all of us, but for me it happens moreso with her than with the others.  We often finish one anothers' sentences or voice one anothers' thoughts.  Barbara is the one who can play guitar, bass viol, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer, bodran, panpipe, flute and autoharp. She writes beautiful pieces of music, as well.

So now, you have "met" all of my siblings. Now when I tell family stories or mention them, perhaps you'll be better able to put a personality and some characteristics behind the names.

And I have lots of stories!

Because she is such a private person, I hesitate to post pictures of her. If I do, they will be from when she was very young.