Sisters

My mom had three sisters. She was the youngest of six. I am the third of her eight children, five of which are girls. The five us had bookend brothers, one older and two younger.  We were born within seven years of each other, that's 85 months between the oldest and the youngest. Let me think of it another way - The oldest of us just turned seven when the youngest was born.  And by the time I was five, I had three little sisters.

I learned alot growing up with all those sisters: how to share, to care,  to argue and to fix hair.  We learned how to love, to defend, how to build up and defeat. The relationship between sisters is complex. We slept in the same room and shared beds. We were close - we shared an underwear drawer!

Sometimes, we were on the same sports teams. This was good for our team as we were competitive and athletic.  It was also good for my parents, as they didn't have to attend multiple games.

While in high school, three of my sisters were with me; my older sister was a junior when I started and by the time I was a senior, my sisters were a freshman and sophomore. After that, I went away to college, got married, and had four children of my own.  Being so close in age, we all became mothers around the same time.

Two of my sisters gave birth to more than one daughter, and another had two step daughters continuing the complicated relationship of sisterhood.