Meet My Sister, Dee

  Graphic by Donna

I have at times in this journal quoted bits from emails or letters that I've received from my sisters. Well, my sister P.J. recently sent an email that had me chuckling most of the day after receiving it. I wanted to write about it in here, but first I thought I'd introduce everyone to my sisters and brother, mainly because some explanations will be due if I do share that email.

I've mentioned before that I am the youngest of 7 children. There are 18 years between my eldest sister and me. Dennice is a Speech and Language Pathologist who works in a school system and who also takes private clients. The rest of us thought it was rather ironic when she decided to become a Speech Pathologist because, of all of us, Dee is known as the "talker". She also has a very country/Southern accent that none of the rest of us have, even though we all grew up in the same county in Kentucky. Dee never fails to put her foot in her mouth and then proceed to make matters worse by trying to explain herself out of the situation. And although now, in her later years, she doesn't get into quite as many physical scrapes as she did when she was younger, she is still known as the one who could fall up a set of stairs, and the one who once backed into a parked school bus -- among other things. Oh, the stories I could tell!

Dennice is smart, and blunt, and funny. She is artistic, plays guitar, sings, is almost as good a seamstress as our mother, and there isn't a lazy bone in her body. She has a heart of gold and a quick temper. Sometimes she tends to look on the dark side of things, but there have been times when her scepticism has come in handy. She is a whiz with dealing with beaurocrats and no one is going to get anything over on her if she has anything to say about it. While growing up I've had many a battle royale with this eldest sister; I believe because we're both alike in ways that made us rub against one another at times. But when I came out of my teens we became very close, and there have been times when it's been eerie how closely our thoughts and actions have mirrored one another's.

When our brother had his stroke, it was Dee and I who coordinated the family, dealt with the medical people and kept the family informed. It is always she and I who plan any family function, and the ones the others come to for help communicating by phone or letter to any type of professional organization or society. It is her daughter, three years younger than I, who was one of my closest friends while growing up, and it is her granddaughter who IMs me every weekend.

Well, I could go on and on, but that gives you a basic introduction to Dee.

To be continued....