Sisters: Matching Bookends

     The unexpected (and prior to this undesired) opportunity to move back to my childhood "neck-of-the-woods" is in the realm of possibility. The Chicago area's long, cold winters are what my husband and I bristled at, over 35 years ago. 1975-79 college years of slamming, brutal, snowy winters highly motivated us to head anyplace South, to warmer weather. We've barely glanced back to permanently reside that far north until this past 2 weeks.

     I think about the uncanny idea of living just 15 miles from my 4-years-younger sister. Sadly, we've not seen each other in years. Yes. The last time we face-to-face saw each other, our now 31-year-old daughters were just 7 years old. Why so many years?... 

     ...Unfortunate.Complicated circumstances.Beyond our wildest imaginations.Undiagnosable difficulties.And distance. 

     Familial elaboration was unearthed in 2012-13 blogging and would be painfully repetitive.

We're bookends, holding up the light pole

     My sister and I share many similarities. We're both 5'6"-ish; have rather large shoe sizes and long legs. We have two children, a daughter and a son. Our daughters are the same age (her daughter's name is a derivative of mine). Our grandsons were born just weeks apart (thank you, Facebook news feeds). We both married gifted men and have single, adult sons. And the list of similarities goes on.

     And yet, in many ways, we are mirror images or bookends. She is like Mom; I'm like Dad. She's blonde; I'm brunette. She freaks at math; I tolerate it. She was a high school beauty queen; I was invisible. She acted and sang in high school plays; I was tone deaf and a stinging wallflower. Since marriage, she's always resided in the Chicago area; since marriage, I've lived anyplace but. In some ways, our identities seem to have flipped. 

     I envision that we may curiously act alike, and walk alike, at times we might even talk alike... yet, would we jibe relationally IF this opportunity actually congeals?? We're one pair of matching bookends, different as night and day, separated by time, space, and puzzling circumstances. 

The cutie pie cousins, 24 years ago

     It would be quite surreal for two long-lost bookends to at least meet again. To maybe have our cute hugging daughters for pale connection, after 24 long years? The cousins missed experiencing puberty together, and zits, and dating boys, and weddings, and child births. We, and they, are essentially strangers. 

     To shed grieving tears for togetherness experiences lost seems fitting. And, in our nearing senior years of life, could we even attempt to re-connect, to laugh, to have fun? And to forge a delayed, unique bond? Or has too much water flowed under a dilapidated bridge? I sigh, I wonder, and I dare not hope.

Running from Crazy Documentary Link

An interesting 1.5-hour documentary with M. Hemingway, "The curse":

Running From Crazy Documentary

(PG-13 @ 1:09 due to crude language)