Family Stories

I love handmade cards and calligraphy and can always expect something special from my artistic friends for my birthday. I had such a lovely day catching up with an old friend at lunch and celebrating the new Starbucks opening on Daniel Island. That's my girl! I can just sit back and admire her. 


My youngest aunt has given me a project for this year--collecting family stories. Many of you know I've been writing about my mom so including my siblings and cousins feels spot on. Here's one from my sister. I'm about 2 yrs old and my sister is 5. She'd parade me around the neighborhood as "my beautiful sister!!!" The neighbors thought it was strange but our mom let my sister take full charge of me. I was a "living doll." She even convinced our older brother to play house where they were the parents and I, the baby. Apparently I went along with everything. The funny thing is that I remember chafing against all the extra mothering and supervision. I always wanted to run off. Of course, I was older by the time I remember, around age four. But I also remember that when I had to go to school, I didn't want to leave my sister. I think I screamed that entire first year when she left me with the nuns. Memory is a strange bird. It'll be very interesting to see how different people remember the same events and each other. And it'll be fun to be the official secret keeper :)

I pulled a picture of our kids at a similar age. Fun to see the resemblance. I wish grownups were as cute as kids.
 

My sister also sent me this with a caption: the young writer. I'm about 10 and I had not yet discovered A. J. Cronin (physician turned writer) and the dream of writing. My heroes were Mother Teresa, Fr. Damien of Molokai and Dr. Albert Schweitzer. I was interested in medicine and wanted to be a nun-doctor. But even back then, my sister and I played "What If" where we made up stories about the people around us. We kept this up in our teens. And I'm still at it :)

I love these snowy portraits of my kids. Family: my greatest gift.