...I got what I always wanted, a baby sister. My parents dropped me off early that morning and Dad woke me from my afternoon nap to tell me she was here. We named her Janet Kay and my parents always let me think that I had chosen the name. (My first two suggestions were "Marcia" and "Cindy." Also in the running was "Priscilla," but my great-grandmother feared we would be called "Prissy and Missy.") I had to wait three days to meet her-this was, after all, the 1970's. I couldn't even go see my mother, she had to come out to the waiting room to see me. Finally, the big day arrived and she came home for the hospital. As the oldest child and only grandkid, I was in for a bit of a surprise. She didn't look like the toddlers at Namaw and Pawdad's church nursery or even the "little kids" at my Montessori pre-school. She was almost bald, couldn't even hold her own head up, and she cried a lot. But soon she was smiling, laughing, and drawing lots of attention for being so cute and so funny. And we fought over the spotlight for the next five years until our youngest sister was born and her red hair stole it outright from both of us. Thirty years later, Janet is still "the funny one." She's also the tough one who survived teenage parenthood, a lousy first marriage, nursing school, and a job in the ICU. And the pretty one with the naturally curly hair and the only one to hit her WW goal weight twice now. And the strong one whose managed to raise four beautiful girls in the middle of all of this. And the one who taught me everything she knew about babies since she had two before I had any. I didn't always know it growing up, but I know now how lucky I was thirty years ago today when she was born. I know these words alone don't do enough to pay tribute to my wonderful sister, so I hope these song lyrics will serve better than my words to explain just how much my little sister means to me:
Happy Birthday to you
You live in a zoo
You look like a monkey
And you smell like one too.
Happy Birthday Janet!
Love,
"the boss of you"
5 comments:
What a wonderful post, Melessa! Love the ending!! Hilarious.
Love,
Jen
HA HA HA!!! Janet's getting OLD! Wait, I'm still older.. We'll ignore that for now. HA HA HA!
Happy birthday, Janet! I agree with Melessa -- little sisters are the best things ever. They are what we always long for until we finally get them (then we go though a few years of regretting we ever wished for them, but soon enough everything becomes wonderful again).
Happy Birthday Janet!! I want you to know how proud I am of you!! I remember when you were my little junior counselor who actually didn't mind sleeping in a tent... then you discovered boys. I hope you have a great Birthday!!
By the way... only Chris is getting older.... I'm still the same age!!
I'll get you for that one Lanie!!
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