Before she started high school and spent most of her time away from home, my older sister was like a second mother to us younger kids. With six kids under 14 yrs. of age my mother needed the help. My sister was wonderful to us and we were ecstatic when she agreed to join in our games. She loved having fun and I remember her laughing a lot. When she started high school, I never expected that things would change. Suddenly, she was seldom around, and when she was around, she was either busy or sleeping. I missed her.
Before long, she was off to college and I inherited her bedroom. My older brother wasn't around much which meant I was now the oldest and in charge. I was the queen bee. When my sister came home on breaks, I would share her old bedroom with her. If she went uptown to see friends or into the city to go window shopping, she would sometimes take me along. I felt special.
After I finished high school and went to college, I visited my sister and her new husband and baby a couple of times, but after that I was busy with classes, work and friends and I managed to visit her only once more before I got married By that time she was divorced and remarried and busy with her own kids, new step-kids and work. Her new husband was a strict religious fundamentalist, bordering on fanaticism, and I did not share his beliefs. Before long I saw my sister give up her own soul to become submissive to her husband as his religion demanded, and allow him to take away her freedom of thought and decision; she was no longer the sister I grew up with. To this day, I've only once or twice caught a glimpse of the person my sister once was, and I feel as if I've lost forever my beloved older sister and friend.
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