My sister, the superstar
It’s 5:25 AM on a Wednesday, and I’m waking up because I’m not the best sleeper. I wish I was, but it just isn’t in me. I wake up at random times and can’t go back to bed and go through the rigorous battle between man and sheet before I finally decide it’s time to get up. You all know that tango; roll over, head, pillow, repeat.
But at that same moment, my sister, a girl that barely appears to be able to lift a 25 pound barbell off the ground if he life depended on it, is uncomfortably resting with two kids in bed. I walk in to wash my face and see my sister, now 30, laying horizontally on a queen sized bed.
It looks horrible.
This is her life.
But you’ll never hear her complain; it isn’t in her genes. She wakes up, rolls the 4-year-old off her lap as she cracks her neck, and starts her day. It’s a day of stress and arguments and trying, oh so trying, to get kids to understand what adults seem to, but it isn’t easy; it never is. But it’s just a day, and tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. No end in sight, and no problem to her.
She’s a single mom of two rowdy, but wonderful kids, and her weeks consist of balancing a full-time job with providing for two boys that pull her in a host of different directions. It’s one of those situations that a weak person might eventually abandon, but not my sister.
Not a lot of people impress me. Barry Bonds could hit baseball fars. Tiger Woods was a good putter. Barack Obama speaks better than most people in this world. But they’re just people, designated to jobs that make them feel important, and in some cases, are important. I would never trade places with Obama, but that’s their choice; for my sister, it’s the hand she was dealt.
On a day when we praise our mothers for what they’ve done for us, I can’t help but think the road my sister has been on. A girl that I looked up to since I started losing teeth as a kid, Alicia has been a strong presence in my life that has helped me to become a better person. No, we’re not big huggers, and no, we don’t end conversations with ‘I love you,” but we are family in the strongest sense of the word.
Being with her for a week made me realize just how beautiful of a person she’s become. The last year hasn’t been her best, and she’d be the first person to tell you that, but spending a few days in her shoes makes you appreciate the strength of a woman that can handle things. Alicia can handle things. She handles things well.
I can’t help but look back on that morning when I walked in her room, kids flung across her bed like blankets. Alicia wasn’t upset. She wasn’t annoyed. She wasn’t even confused. It’s her life, and she lives it as best she can, and to me, that’s respect.
I love my sister, and on Mother’s Day, I end this simply by saying thank you to her, for being there for me when she has so many more things going on in her life. I thank you for being a wonderful sister, a beautiful mother and most importantly, my best friend. I couldn’t do this without you, and I know dad, mom and those boys would agree.
