Happy Birthday Sister-Friend

Attending the reading at the library Monday was part of the special hanging out together day with my sister-friend Jamie which is what she asked of me to help her celebrate her birthday which is today. Jamie and I weren't true siblings either biological nor situational as I had been long married myself by the time she became a ward of my parents after her mother's death in her early teens. But she and I both feel a bond that the word 'friend' doesn't quite cover so when one of us first used the term 'sister-friend' we both knew it was exactly right.

This was taken around 88 or 89 not long after Jamie began living with my parents. Dad was the photographer. Left to right: Mom, Jamie, my husband Ed, my sister who is now Mom's caretaker and me. This was shortly before I received the definitive diagnosis of RP and discovered I was already legally blind and had to begin carrying a white cane.

Monday was supposed to be her day but going to the reading was my idea and she agreed without reservations. She came over Monday afternoon and we visited and she gave me a pedicure and we watched Oprah together with Mom. Then she and I fixed a spaghetti dinner for the five of us. She fixed the salad and garlic bread and I fixed the pasta and sauce. After dinner we headed over to the library and after the reading we went to Denny's to visit some more over coffee (for me) and soda (for her) and a shared order of seasoned fries. All her treat since I've been cashless since my trip to Powell's the Sunday before Mother's Day.

Does anyone else see the irony in all of that. The day was supposed to be my gift to her and yet she gave me a pedicure, helped fix dinner, took me to a venue that was more my thing than hers and treated me to coffee. That's a sister-friend I guess.

Well at least I was able to give her one of the crocheted bookmarks I made this month. The third one. The red one with the black 'ribbon' and black bead. And I know for a fact this is and always will be unique because it used up the remnant of thread left on that spool--one of the half dozen or so such spools I inherited from my husband's grandmother when she passed in 2007 and which was no less than fifteen years and possibly more than thirty years old. The bead too is one of a kind, found in one of Mom's craft drawers. The 'ribbon' was found in Mom's sewing machine drawer among the ric-rac and seam binding and piping leftovers from garments she made well over thirty years ago. It had no label and she can't retrieve it's name but she could describe its use: for decorating garments usually around collars, cuffs and hems.