Sisters!

Today is my sister Linda's birthday! Happy Birthday my beautiful sister!

If you were blessed like me and have a sister you can understand the special relationship sisters have. I am twice blessed, I also have my sister Debbie and though the three of us have had many fights over the years, most of the time we really get along and are best friends. Sisters!

Linda and I are only 2 years apart and kinda grew up separate from Debbie. Debbie is 8 years younger than me. Debbie and my youngest brother Joey were buddies when they were kids, they shared a room and me and Linda shared a room. Eventually it came time for Debbie and Joey to be separated and Debbie moved in with us. We were rotten to her, kicked her out of the room all the time and all she wanted to do was hang with her big sisters. When we lived in Brooklyn and she was so young we told her there were ghosts upstairs so she never came up to our room then, even after my mom found out and told us to stop, she was already afraid. Sisters!

Linda and I shared a bedroom for many years. My mom even dressed us alike when we were little. Not everything, but we always had the same coat, hat, scarf, same winter boots, same pajamas, stuff like that. She just bought two of everything when she went shopping. I remember finally being old enough to go and pick out my own clothes. I bought a pair of sandals and Linda went out and bought the very same ones. I was livid. Here I finally can be different and my little sister is buying the same shoes. Sisters!

I drove Linda crazy in so many ways when we shared a room. If you know me, I can be a bit hyper, just a bit! And when I was young and even into my 20s, I didn't even slow down in my sleep. I walked, talked, moved all over the bed. Most of the time we had bunk beds but there was a time we had a couch that turned into a bed and we slept together. That was the last time my sister Linda slept in the same bed with me. To this day, if we go away together, she always says I'm not sleeping with Tricia! And I've stopped walking and talking in my sleep. I know for sure but she wont believe me and again I tortured her, so I understand. Sisters!

I would lose my blanket and pillow while tossing and turning and just take hers. Sometimes I would be asleep, sometimes awake, she never knew, but I would just take the blanket and pillow from her and argue it was mine. There was a time that at about 3 or 4 in the morning, still sleeping, I would turn on the light and start to get ready for school. Linda would scream at me to go back to bed and eventually I would but it was happening every night. And then, I guess because all day long Linda would tell me how I ruined another night of sleep for her, I started to realize what I was doing, I would be turning the light on and wake up. Linda would start screaming at me and I would say I'm awake, I know, I'll turn out the light. But I had said "I'm awake" so many times when I wasn't that she didn't believe me, again, I don't blame her. I'm sure I drove her crazy. Sisters!

As an adult I can see now that little siblings look up to their older siblings, they love them, want to be like them and it's a shame we don't realize that until we're adults. As I watched my nieces and nephews grow up I can see them all looking up to their older brother, sister or cousin with that adoration and the older one is always just trying to get away from the younger one. But I've also watched them grow up to be great friends.

My sisters unfortunately don't live close by, Linda's only about and hour and half away and Debbie is about five hours, so we do get together a lot, but it's not the same as when we lived together or even close by. We talk on the phone but now that they are both moms and working full time too, we don't get to talk as often. There was a time when both their husbands would be complaining to them about how much time we spent talking on the phone with each other, hours, every day. How could we have so much to say?! Sisters!

I grew up watching my mom and her sister, my beautiful Aunt Libby, having such a close relationship, best friends. Aunt Libby has a son and a daughter, Doug and Chrissy, and they are really brother and sister to me and my siblings. Chrissy and Debbie are close in age, they grew up together, fought and made up like sisters. That counts as a real sister in my book, when you can fight and then make up like nothing happened. My brothers' wives, Debbie, Jackie and Janet, they have sisters and they too have and know that special connection. There's nothing like it.

Sisters!