March 14th, 2025

Yesterday was Joy's birthday !!!  All together now:  "Happy Birthday, Joy!"  Oh that was nice.  Her request for her birthday was a hike which is what we do almost every Thursday so that was easy to give her :)  There were a very small gifts and some oatmeal cookies too.  Not bad.

You know, as sisters go, I got really lucky. Joy is one of the good ones.  While our interests and talents are not much the same - she is an artist and a dancer and a genius quilt maker while I'm more of a reader, writer, housemouse type - she has always been my biggest supporter.  Back when I used to write music, I would send her tapes of me playing and singing the songs I wrote and then she would listen and call me and we would discuss them.  Which meant that she honestly, actually, really and truly listened to each and every one of those doggone tapes.  That's huge.

In school she was super popular and active in social groups like theatre, art and dance while I had a very small (emphasis on the very) circle of friends and spent a lot of time on my own hanging around libraries and typewriters.   But we shared a room, in a courteous way, and helped each other out with whatever the other needed.  We comprised on room colours and were genuinely interested in each other's lives even though our personalities were very different.

I suspect that part of the reason that two people who were so very different, (even though we are still to this day told how much we look alike) got along so well was that in our childhood years, we moved so very much.  Life was sometimes kind of traumatic and difficult for one reason or another and we were always stepping into the unknown.  There was sometimes stress and pressure in the household which of course needed to stay secret and that left the two of us often feeling very much alone. There were times when we were all we had.  So we cherished and nurtured and so carefully protected our collective which, I suppose, was sisterhood.

After sharing a room for our whole childhood,  we were finally separated when I left for college after which I moved on with my life and she with hers. And it so happened that life dictated that we would live far away from each other for the greater part of our adult lives.  But we couldn't really be separated so we burned up the phone lines on a regular basis, talking, listening, supporting, sharing, venting and advising.  And to this day, nobody can make me laugh harder and longer than she can.  We crack each other up, laugh until we cry, leave the room separately to calm down and then when we return all we have to do is look at each other and we start laughing all over again. That's priceless.

In our entire lives, we never really fought, never raised our voices and certainly never resorted to violence!  Come to think of it I do remember one occasion when Joy - for whatever reason was willing to poke the bear.  We were in primary school still, in California in the second house there.  Joy was inside and I was outside charged with watering the garden.  I'm not why, but Joy was feeling a little bold and silly both at the same time and was mocking me through the open window, making fun to me having to do a chore while she was foot loose and fancy free.  I listened to the teasing through three different windows (two rooms) and suddenly for a brief moment, turned the hose on her. Through the open window.  Into the house.  She was shocked into silence, sputtered a moment and then started laughing. I mean way deep down in  the belly laughter!  Which made me laugh too and we ended up sopping up the wet floor (and furniture - yikes) together and our parents never knew.  That's the best kind of sisterhood.

Now for the past almost 9 years now, finally we are living in the same state, only about a half hour apart and how very nice to get to spend time together, once a week at least, to giggle and vent and listen and talk and support and advise once more, but now live and in person.  

We still have different interests, personalities and talents though there is more crossover now. We've both raised our beautiful, wonderful and amazing children (she had all girls, I had all boys).  We both retired from jobs that were in medical offices, departments and clinics (odd eh?) And now here we are, hanging out together because we enjoy each other's company, hiking because we love getting out in nature, taking photos because that has become a shared interest (her pictures are a zillion times better than mine, but she is patient and teaches and I learn more every time we go out).   We still talk and listen and crack each other  up every single week.

We both a little creaky now, a little grey, a little wrinkley and we both have discovered the frustration of arthritis in our hands.   When we are out together, whether we are hiking through forests or off on a shopping adventure (always hilarious) we aren't two old ladies anymore, we are kids again, two sisters who always have each other's backs, giggle a lot and never run out of things to talk about.  We always share what we have, listen with open hearts and quite honestly, I cannot imagine my life without my sister in it.

Happy Birthday Jo!

I will write up the Photo Safari Report from yesterday's hike next week, I promise!