People sometimes comment on my patience with hyperactive children. Some can hardly believe that I can be so calm and understanding with kids who are bouncing off the walls.
What most people don’t know is that I was one of those kids.
The one person who does know this, and knew it all too well for most of her childhood, would have to be my big sister, Mary. She is in the middle of my three older sisters, seven years younger than Cait and one year older than Sarah. And she was most often the target of my childhood hyper activity.
To be honest, I was a bit spoiled as a child. My parents were approaching forty when I came into their lives, and I was not only the youngest, the baby of the family, I was also the only boy. That made me the golden child.
Mary did her part, though, to keep my feet on the ground. She never backed away from disciplining me whenever I would tease her, invade her privacy, or act up in any way. More than any of my other sisters, she taught me to fight, a valuable skill for any growing boy.
Luckily, I grew up and calmed down. And I grew to appreciate my sister Mary.
Mary is the artist of the family, and there are several of her paintings hanging in the house. She majored in art with a special emphasis in sculpture. Talk about cool!
After college, she headed to St. Louis where I visited her a couple of times. Her apartment was in an old part of town that I remember as having great shops and restaurants. Mary introduced me to good Chinese food, independent films, and good rhythm and blues. She broadened my horizon with her eclectic tastes and her love of life.
She married a wonderful guy and they moved to Salt Lake City. I visited and was introduced to skiing and sushi. I discovered that she had become a pretty good chef, and that her husband could brew a tasty bottle of beer. I visited over Christmas, and it is one of my fondest Christmas memories.
Mary and A.J. now have three wonderful children and live in Portland, Oregon. I am scheduled to get on a plane and go for another visit, again to spend Christmas with their family.
I am looking forward to spending time with them and reconnecting. I am just happy that after enduring my shenanigans for the first part of her life, Mary still wants to have anything to do with me. After fighting like cats and dogs during our childhood, I am amazed that we get along so well now. I guess you would have to call that my Christmas Mary-cle.
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