70 YEARS OF SISTER ACT

I don't remember when I first became aware of her. I do know that I was 5 1/2 years old when she was born.  We had the prerequisite mother and father, two sets of grandparents one Aunt and her husband our Uncle Gid.  No cousins no other children.  I feel sure that I was not aware of her birth because I was completely self absorbed by four grandparents who thought that having me for a  grandchild was blessing of all blessings from God.  Little did I know at 5 1/2 years of age that they would think another grand daughter was a double blessing from God,  I think I do not remember her when she was a baby  because of some smidgen of jealousy.  I had been the center of a universe. I liked it.   I am trying hard to remember the first time I actually became aware that she had entered that universe.  Truthfully I don't know.  I just know  that she has been a part of my life for 70 years.  Longer than anyone else.  I know that our DNA matches more closely than any other  DNA in our family.

We grew up where there was plenty of love to go around and we benefitted from it all of our lives.  My first memory I believe.....you know how you sometime think you knew something and then you are not sure whether you actually knew it or you had heard the story so many times that you believed you knew it.  Its a complicated sentence and thought but you know what I mean.  I heard the story about her long blond curls which everyone thought were beautiful and my hair which seldom ever bent and how I loved cutting hair anyway and so.....the rest of the story is predictable.  I cut a few of the curls off. Again I may only know if from having heard the story, but I think I actually remember it.

She didn't call me Beverly.  She called me Kid.  I never knew why.  It took years and years before her saying Beverly sounded right to me.  It does today,     She was actually much more the lovable child than I.  She was obedient, she was respectful and she was prettier than I was.  Enough to make me wonder what I had done to have this person enter my territory. I was more adventurous than she and together I suppose we finally meshed.

Today I can thank my Mother and Dad for putting her in my life.  I know that she and I both grew up.  She was my chief baby sitter with my  daughter.  I was her chief baby sitter with her first two children.  We traveled many miles together, all over England and Scotland.  Four of us.   Actually,  I know that God blessed me and put her in my life.  That's how she got there.

I still don't know how  we managed when they would visit from Arlington,  and we had the four of us and three children and somehow in a small house on Dunbar Street with one bathroom we managed to feed everyone breakfast get everyone in and out of the bathroom and get to Sunday School on time.

The time that I think bonded us more than any other time was when we spent about 2 weeks together at the hospital in Dallas when we said goodbye to her mate and my brother through her. I knew then that neither of us would ever be alone as long as the other one lived.

Today she is still wiser than me and I am still more outgoing than she and we probably complement each other.  She knows more about me than anyone on earth and I am confident and comfortable with  her knowing.

I've seen her enter into another marriage with a good Christian man.  She would not have chosen otherwise. I thank God for that.    She is a dependable person to have around.
Thank you Father for this gift.  Frances Stewart,  today at this milestone year of your birth,  I hope you have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and that I never have to live without you in my life.