Sisters First Best Friends.

Making friends when you are little.

Before I was a glimmer in my father's eye, I
had a sister who longed for twin baby siblings,
dreamed of the twin siblings, and pestered our
mother.

Dulce was 14 when my brother was born
and 16 when I was born.  Not a set of twins,
but a boy and a girl born twenty-three months apart.

Unlike our older sister, who had to warm up
to the idea of, gasp, more siblings. Dulce welcomed us
and helped raise us.  Dressing us, bathing us, she was
a little mama to us.  Spending her hard earned cash
to spoil us and help our parents.

My precious, sweet, obedient sister
has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.
The second most feared diagnosis after cancer.

At 40 she survived an aneurysm, a few years ago
she was diagnosed with skin cancer.

My heart is in your heart

What we once enjoyed
and deeply loved

we can

never lose

for all

that we

love deeply

become a part

of us.

Helen Keller

There is nothing more precious than
something handmade for you.
It could be a lovingly made scarf, a special dinner,
or friend asking her sister to finish a quilt made by
your sister long ago.
That is what happened to me.
My friend asked her sister to finish
the crazy quilt top my sister made over 20 years ago.

My sister used what she had on hand.
Mostly discarded neon
polyester with some much older cottons.
Each fabric scrap hand pieced with cross stitches.
Little sweet kisses.

This year has been a year of revisiting
unresolved periods of grief.
Buried deep and ignored.
I mourn the loss of my sister more today then ever before.
Holding the completed quilt is like
wrapping my arms around my sister.
Having a good cleansing cry.

Consider for a moment, two sisters,
who will never meet,
sharing their talents to complete a work of art.

Magical inspired love.
From the bottom of my heart thank you.

If we pause in awareness,  it is easy to see
angels touching our lives every day.

The lady at the fabric store recommended I use
a fabric my sister would have liked for the backing.
Her favorite colors were brown and grey.
A brown spotty fabric for the back with
solid brown binding were selected.

It is a treat to feel the quilt's weight in my lap.
To run my fingers over the stitches my sister
formed all those years ago.
To appreciate the loving talent and
effort of a sister quilter. 

My heart is full and runneth over.

Thank you for stopping by the Pumpkin Cottage.

Mericia

Mericia is my oldest sister (in the photo she is 18). She passed away nearly 17 years ago but since my mother was placed in the home the pain has been so fresh. My sister was 18 years older than me. She was the oldest of the five and I was the youngest. My sister and I were separated twice. Once when we immigrated to the States.

Mericia wouldn't join us in the States for another year. The second time we were separated was in her passing. The first separation changed my life forever. Mericia was like a mother and the love my my four year old heart. As a teenager, I thought my mother was such an idiot to having children so far apart until I had my last child nearly twenty years after my first child.

My sister was amazing and I finally see that my mother was too. Mericia could make anything but I didn't want to learn because we lived in America and little American girls didn't need to learn crafts and domestic arts. So many regrets. As an adult I have learned the error of my ways.

I cry nearly every night when I say good night to my mother and I mourn Mericia more than ever before. Love love your family.