My sisters and their kids

Today is March 8!  That can mean only one thing in my heart and mind.  The birthday of my nephew.  We'll call him "Bubbah".  Everyone HAS a Bubbah, right?   I know right where I was standing and what I was doing on THIS day, twenty years ago.  I was falling in love.  Happy Birthday, my darling!

It has been with great delight that I have fallen in love with other people's kids over and over again.  My own daughter, aka "Lil Dew Drop". My enchantment - whom I was fortunate enough to be able to choose for my child. I got me the BEST ONE. Plus, she's produced a son of her own who is the sun and stars in my sky  They say grandchildren are our reward for not killing our children and they were right!  But also children related to me by blood and a slew of 'em related to me by heart.

I have a sister - we'll call her "Maggot".  You know, a sister of the "grew up with the same parents as you" variety.  She is my best friend.  The person I see every day and talk to on the phone all the time.  She helps me keep my shish together when I'm sick and can't manage it all by myself.  She's been changing my cat boxes for FIVE YEARS!  Not many friends would do that just cuz they love you, but my Maggot will.  She's the ONLY other person who truly understands how crazy my mother is!  *Love ya, mom! XX*  She has two great kids - Bubbah and Mina.  It has been true love to watch them grow.  I'm proud of 'em like they are my own.  They are as familiar to me as my own.

I have a friend - Bean.  We've been friends since we were NINE YEARS OLD.  Like...best friends, talk all the time friends...for 36 years!  She and I have spent at least 2 minutes together every New Year's Eve since we were 14.  Everyone knows we are together at midnight.  Bean is just GOOD.  She does what she should because it's the right thing to do.  She always has, even when we were kids.  We grew up together, same as if we had grown up in the same house. We're sisters.  Her kids have called me auntie all their lives - the first of their kind!  It's been a privilege and an honor to be their Auntie.

My best friend is called Hita (cuz we've never known how to spell hijita).  It's what her dad called her - and often me - and it means something like little girl or daughter.  THIS girl is my heart.  We've been best mates since we were 12.  And ohhh...the shenanigans!  If I was in trouble or having the best times of my life, the story is always going to start, "One time, me and Hita..."  The girl makes me LAUGH.  NO ONE - in my WHOLE long life - can make me laugh like my best friend.  She is the mother of The Three B's. That gorgeous pack of wildcat girls who have made long to be young again at all stages of their lives.  They have become my friends; in their own right and separate from their mama. 

My NEW old friend, I've known for 20 years now. We'll call her Bob - only because she doesn't have a nickname and the names must always be changed to protect the guilty. *wink*  She can read my mind.  She and I find the same things beautiful.  We could talk together until the end of time.   We survived the war together.  She's sweet and smart and pure light and energy to my soul.  Her kids were wee when we first met.  Between 4-7.  It's been a gift to watch the three of them grow and to see what kind of brilliant young people they have become.

My joy in all my Sisters is to have watched them go from girls to teenagers, to mothers and now to grandmothers.  Which is hard to believe, I don't care how old you get!  They know everything about me.  We have jokes between us that are 30 years old!  Everything I have ever done or ever been - anything that has ever happened to me, good or bad - has been witnessed by the four of them.  Shared, counseled, deemed a good idea or ridiculous horseshit and they were always there at the end to say, "I told you so" or pick up the pieces. Every battle of my life has been fought with one or all of them by my side.  They are the walking, talking repository of my personal history and I am theirs. "And my memory is looong." I can't even imagine WHO in this life I would BE if I hadn't had them.  What would be funny? What would have meaning? What would be important and what would be pure gimcrack and bunkum, if they hadn't been there whilst I was growing and leaning what had value and beauty in this life? At EVERY stage of my life!  We share a long history.  THIS is love - all it ever was and will be.

So when I say my sisters, I can mean any one of them because they are more than my friends. And when I say my kids, I'm drawing from a highly populated pool of love - even though most of my kids aren't kids anymore.  This is what I know - not everyone is so privileged.  Some will never know stronger, braver, kinder, more giving woman then the women that I call my sisters and friends. Some people can go a whole life and not be blessed with ONE and I've had FOUR.  Women who have raised fine, beautiful, and enthralling kids whom I love. 

“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
― William Shakespeare

 There isn't a more charmed or fortunate life than mine.