In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips!

“Here” – my sister says as she gives me a cup of hot chocolate. “I added marshmallows.”

“Thanks” I say as I sit up in bed to drink wiping off the tears.

“Maybe this will help” She leaves the room and within minutes comes back with her own pillow and lays down right next to me. Hands me a box of tissues and turns on the TV and we proceed to watch an old Fred Astaire movie.

She isn’t one of many words. But this is her way of saying I’m here for you. Growing up with her had its ups and downs. But I have to say moments like these I wouldn’t trade her for the world.

We are very different her and I. Six years apart to be exact. She’s not emotional or an over analyzer. She’d rather you not hug her or kiss her. It’s her way. She’s always been that way. But in every tragedy of my life she is the one person that keeps me grounded.

In the past two years she’s not only taken the role of my sister but also has become like a second mother to me. Getting sick took not only a toll on me but in my family. In her in particular. She’s become a caregiver and nurse; who shifts her time everyday so that the load of a chronic illness is not a burden on just one person. She slept on the floor of the hospital for a whole year somehow proving she does love me. To me she is the gift to my heart. Both a defender, and a listener, and a conspirator. A sharer of life’s greatest moments and its greatest sorrows.

I once read a card that said: At times it feels like you’re the gum stuck in the bottom of my shoe. “I didn’t ask for you. I don’t know how you got there, but I can’t get rid of you so I might as well live with you…” And it’s true having a sister you know comes with many quarrels and annoyances that would sink any friendship but never a sisterhood. No, sisters stick together through thick and thin under an unannounced loyalty pact. Sticking up for each other at all times. No one can pick on her, no one but you.

The gift of a sister is a treasure beyond compare. When mom and dad don’t understand a sister always will. She teaches you how to double team your parents and how to get away with anything. The ties between sisters will always be some of the strongest bonds. And though growing up she would break, borrow, tell on, and monopolized the bathroom making you late all the time… you love her unconditionally.

“She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you’re smiling even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defense attorney, your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she’s the reason you wish you were an only child” –Barbara Alpert