For years I was told I was spoiled. Being the last of five children with a twenty year spread might give one reason to think that I might have been babied. In a loving family, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that the baby gets a lot of attention.
I was telling someone over a staff breakfast this morning that my daughers and I were spending our weekend with my sister and mother in Illinios. Naturally, the conversation gravitated to the fun we had planned. One mused that I must have a lot of fun with my sister. Yes, indeed.
In fact, she's the one that has spoiled me rotten! As a kid, she spent time with me. Even with eight years difference, I never got the impression I was a distraction or bother to her. I recall one evening when she allowed me to practice walking figure-8's with our newly acquired dog, a Viszla - some kind of high falutin Hungarian hunting dog we named Wrinkles. It was her date that formed the other point in our figure-8! How many sisters would put up with that!
I remember making turtle candies with her. (I think that may have been in the company of another friend as well!) There were so many times her band friends swarmed the house. I was never shooed away, always treated amiably.
She went off to college when I was 10 and she wrote me notes, talked to me on the phone, and let me come stay with her on "Little Sister's Weekend". One of the those weekends, I remember going to the convenience store to buy my first pair of stockings. I planned on being sophisticated! Unfortunately, I don't think PANTI-hose had been invented yet and I certainly didn't have a garter belt! As fat as my thighs were, I just could keep them up! What a comedy routine! Though we found the humor in it, she was kind and never made fun of me.
Eventually, I went to college. She sent care packages frequently. The best cookies and tea mixes were included in with all the fun stuff like cute stationary, great paperbacks, with stamps and new pens.
Almost thirty years later, she is still spoiling me. Laying out the red carpet to me and to my teenagers, giving them the attention she lavished on me for years.
Making another feel totally loved doesn't have to cost a lot (although I know she's done that), and it doesn't have to take a huge amount of time (and that, too). But it does take time spent wisely. Sometimes, it's just time spent.
Nan--I'm betting that Buffy even makes it seem that you and your kids are doing her a favor by coming to see her, doesn't she? She's that sort of person! She treats her friends, similarly. At least, she goes out of her way to make it seem that she is deriving as much pleasure from our blog friendship as I am deriving. What a great woman! As to your being spoiled: It seems to have turned you into a loving and lovely person, too! A win-win situation all around. Here's a cheer for sisters and friends: RAH! RAH! RAH!
I don't know if I had a Sis like Buffy if I would consider myself spoiled, but I do know I'd sure be pleased.
Oh, I can't belive that it's taken me a month to read this! I was sure that I had visited more recently than that. You must be thinking I don't love you any more!
You know, I don't remember some of that. I remember making the turtles and Little Sister's Day at school. Did I really send you care packages when you were in college? SO many times I think of things to do for you, but fail to follow through. My correspondence has shifted to e-mail rather than a personally written note, and I feel that as a loss. I love to get notes from you.
What needs to be said is that you have returned my love four-fold and more. It's no effort to do things for you because you are my sister, and my friend. You've given me two nieces and a brother-in-law whose birthday I perennially forget. I'm rich in the love that flows from you and your family, and I suspect that I can never do enough in return.
Thanks for a lovely post, sis.