Tomorrow is my birthday. I am looking forward to spending a good deal of it with my sister, Bev, and her husband, John.
This will be my first birthday with her. As an only child, I always had friends and neighbors with whom to share my birthday. Since it was in the summer, the kids at camp came to my party and I always asked for Mrs. Funck's lasagna as a special treat for dinner. In later years Alex and his friends would be there and later still Bob came into the picture. He proposed on my birthday at the lake, as a matter of fact.
But my family wasn't that close and really consisted only of cousins. Once we got the camp when I was 10 they became less prominent in my life.
But now I have a sister.
I was adopted and found my birthmother in 1992. She told me that my father had two daughters but didn't know what had become of them. At her funeral the next year I learned that one had died of cancer and the other was in Florida somewhere. The gentleman who told me offered to act as a go-between - but then he passed on unexpectedly, too. It took me until 1997 to try the addresses he gave me, and by then she was gone. I fiddled with the internet a bit, but without luck.
In January Karen, marvelous Karen, our receptionist here, told me about finding someone through the internet. I offhandedly remarked that she should find my sister if she wanted a project. She did. Quickly.
I called Bev out of the blue and she accepted me on the spot. "Cool," she said, when I stopped talking. She had no idea that I existed, but still she accepted me.
Tomorrow she will come and walk the Elbridge property with John and her dog for the first time. We'll come over to the village for the boats and then go on to camp for the first time. She wants to sit on the deck and share a bottle of wine. I just want my sister to be part of my life. My sister - I never thought this would ever happen!
So I am sharing this bit of Life with my readers, with the caveat that we don't know what awaits us around the next corner. I am thrilled that for me it was my sister. And thankful forever to Karen who made this possible!
