my cherie

yesterday i got the sweetest card in the mail. it was addressed to josh and i from my little sister, cherie. i tore off the envelope, then opened the card. what i saw made me start to laugh uncontrolably; the card was completely empty. void of any words whatsover. i thought that this was the funniest thing i had seen in a long time. so i picked up the phone and called my sister who, after locating the card that she MEANT to send, started giggling right along with me. apparently, there had been an issue with finding the right size of envelope, and in all the confusion, a blank card was sealed and sent away to us, rather than the very sweet one that she had taken the time to write to us. i had her read it over the phone so both josh and i could hear what she had meant to say. i also thanked her for sending such a thoughtful item...a card that we could recycle by using again!

my little sister was born on may 28th 1986. i remember that year because it was the year of Expo 86, and also the year that i won 2 blue ribbons at my kindergarten sports day. the very same day that i won those blue ribbons, my brothers and i were taken to the hospital to visit our mom and brand new baby sister. i remember being thrilled when she came home to realize that she was small enough to fit into my cabbage patch doll's clothes. before long, she had grown like a slender weed with curly blonde hair down to her miniature waist. we all adored her and spoiled her and cuddled her. after all, she was the baby. when my mom got the job of working at our school library, she would bring cherie, who was still too young for school, with her to work. at recess my little sister would come running to me from across the playground, hair ribbons flying. i was so proud to have the cute little sister that all of my friends cooed over. and, of course, cherie LOVED all of the attention.

since cherie and i were the only 2 girls in the family, we grew up sharing everything, from bedrooms to sleeping bags to hair straighteners. we had bunk beds and, of course, i had the top bunk. pretty soon she stopped being so adorable to me and began to be quite the annoying little sister. for starters, she snored rather loudly for a child her size. also, she and her friends would walk into our room whenever they felt like it, leaving me NO PRIVACY! when i started dating at age 16, cherie and my brother would spy on me from the window upstairs, watching us kiss by the front door.

then my older brother got married and cherie and i were able to have our own rooms and began getting along quite a bit better. when she made the decision to leave her tiny school after gr. 9 and begin attending MEI, just like i did, i was full of protective, older sister advice: "don' be shy; be outgoing and make friends right away. otherwise people will mistaken your shyness for snobbiness and you will be miserable" i told her, fearing that she would end up in the same boat as i did in my final, nearly friendless years of highschool. it was that year that i realized that even though we had shared the same roof and room for almost our entire lives, and even though we have identical smiles, cherie and i are nothing alike. right from the start, she began bringing friends home from school. not just A friend, but friends! by the time her 16th birthday party rolled around, she had made so many friends that she couldn't decide who to invite, so she just gave up and invited them all. there were something like 30 kids hanging out at our house that day! not only did i finally realize that we were nothing alike, i also realized that i could probably learn a lot from her.

cherie is what you would call a "people person". she is the life of the party wherever she goes, always giggling, full of stories, asking questions. people are drawn to her like a moth to a flame. far from being a snob, she is friendly to EVERYONE, never caring about who may not be deemed socially acceptable. she wears her heart on her sleeve and can be easily wounded, but is quick to bounce back and join the party again. oh yes, and she LOVES to talk. the 3 days that we spent with her in scotland contained probably about 10 minutes of silence for the ENTIRE time she was in our presence. "oh, well when we were in morocco.." or "the way they would do things in spain" or "once, when this homeless man walked up to me.." she has a never ending fountain of interesting tidbits to share whenever there is a spare moment of silence to take advantage of. she is a joy to my heart, full of life and love. never change, sis. i love you just the way you are.