I have two great sisters, and every once in a blue moon, we take a trip together, though not as often as we’d like. However, sometimes I remember why we don’t do that too often when we do take those little trips away. They like to pick on me.
I remember once, when Gina was living in Florida, Cindy and I were going to visit her. We were in my car, and about the time we hit the Florida state line it began to rain. Hard. Very hard. Lots of cars were pulling over, but Cindy kept a steady pace. In my car. The rain was pretty loud, too, so when I said, “Maybe you should pull over,” and she kept driving, I naturally assumed she hadn’t heard me. So, I said it again. Same reaction: Silence. Only, I’m sure I saw her teeth clench…you know…by the vein popping in her temple. I believe I had the nerve to say it again, when she said through those clenched teeth, “I heard you the first time.” She didn’t pull over. Later, she made me say I was glad she didn’t pull over. It was almost like saying “uncle.”
Then, there was the time that I was in the back seat while the two of them…both nurses, by the way, were discussing medical things. I kept my silence. Actually, I had to keep my silence as I didn’t have much of a clue as to what language they were speaking. After all, my years as a medical transcriptionist didn’t qualify me to converse, medically speaking. At some point, breast feeding came up.
Let’s go back in time, some 27 years ago, when I had my daughter, LesLee. I tried to breast feed. It was absolutely not working for me, on any level, and considering that my new baby had been screaming all night, and it was nearing 5 a.m., it wasn’t working for her, either. My mom, with whom I was staying, gave that child a bottle, and the screaming stopped. (On a serious note, I really did try, and I do believe that mom’s milk is what is best for the baby.) I discussed all this with Gina; at the time, Cindy was in the Army.
Back to the road trip and the breast feeding discussion…Cindy was pro breast feeding, all mothers should do it, and that’s just the way it is (again, it really is best for baby.) Gina was on the opposite side, saying that it’s not necessarily selfishness on the part of the mother if she chose to not breast feed. (I’m really tired of typing “breast.”) The conversation was getting pretty heated. At this point, I was keeping silent because…well…I was scared not to.
But Gina! Dear, sweet Gina. She pulled her trump card, “Well, Margaret didn’t breast feed!” I really don’t remember what happened next…but I do know that breast feeding is a subject the three of us avoid.
There are other things they’ve done to me…what I mean is, for me. When I was trying to go to a local technical school for some training for a better job, Gina kept LesLee every day, all day, free of charge for a whole year. I didn’t appreciate the trouble I was! But Gina was a real trooper, and I never heard her complain about it. I never even had to ask her to do it, she offered. I was not always organized, either. Once, I forgot to put a bottle in the diaper bag. Bottle-less babies can be a real problem, especially since, on that particular day, Gina ended up at the emergency room with one of her own children who got her little fingers in the way of a slamming door. My poor sister! She had two screaming babies in the ER; one because she was in pain, the other because she was hungry. Gina never yelled at me about that, either.
And Cindy has helped me in so many ways, as well. Once, my car needed a new transmission. I was a single mom, barely making ends meet, and she paid to have my transmission rebuilt. She never expected anything back from me…she just did it.
Both of these lovely ladies have always shown such class and grace. Never have they brought up how much they helped me back in those hard days. They have, however, always loved me. I know I’m special, because when it comes to sisters, I have the best! So, if they choose to pick on me just a little when we’re on road trips (like if they say any of the fights were my fault), I suppose I’ll just let ‘em talk.
