Meet The Sibs

These are my Sibs, my two brothers and two sisters. From left to right they are Christopher, Jokay, Jesse, Moi and Ericka.  I’m the eldest or as my sister Jokay likes to say with emphasis, the OLDEST! That’s ok, I’ll own it. Being the oldest, I am also the wisest. (Can you hear the groaning and kvetching from all over the country? He he he…) In order we are Me, Jo, Ericka, Jesse and Chris.

This picture sits in an engraved desk frame where I can see it every day. One day soon, I'm going to get it enlarged to put over my living room mantelpiece.  I love the sentiment carved on the frame:

Every day of my life has been a gift from my family.

They were with me when I learned to share and to care, to work and to play.

My family was never far, always there to comfort and protect me.

Wherever I go,

They are in my heart.

A family is forever.

-          S.Jackson

There are two things I learned early about the value of having family, one each from my mom and dad. One evening our family was watching a documentary on the homeless. I remember my sibs and I were talking about how terrible it would be to be homeless and my mother said to us, “Don’t worry, you’ll never be homeless. You have family.” The other was when all of us sibs were fussing and fighting about some silly thing and my father, an only child, told us, “Don’t fight with your brothers and sisters. They are your family. When no one else will help you, your brothers and sisters will.”  Both of these moments have stayed with me my whole life and have proven over and over again to be true.

This picture was taken back in ‘98 when we were all at home in Michigan at the same time. Surprisingly, we all still look the same as we do now. We are spread out over the upper Midwest with me the only one in the South.  It’s difficult to coordinate all of the families’ schedules to come together but we try to keep up with each other on a bi-weekly conference call and on a private family Facebook page.  This summer all but one of us was able to be home with my parents at the same time with over lapping vacation times and I realized how much I missed being in the midst of our large loving family. We fussed good naturedly and laughed with each other, threw pillows and stole each other’s places on the family room sofa.  Our kids, nephews and nieces rolled their eyes at our childishness but we didn’t care. We were having the best fun and the memories of those days in July are precious to me.

I’ll be posting more pics including some great black and white ones of my grand and great-grandparents. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your siblings. Drop me a comment and tell me about them.