The Weird Sisters



Mama at Law and Mama Cat

 Are you a sister?  Then you are not surprised by the title of this post.  Sisterhood is weird.  As Charlie Brown says, "Big sisters are the crabgrass in the lawn of life."  But to anyone who has ever started a lawn, they can tell you that crabgrass is better than no grass.  So a big sister is better than no sister, right? Absolutely!  I happen to be one myself.  Why, if it were not for me, sister would not have learned her dance moves, her impeccable fashion sense, nor her wicked sense of humor.  Or maybe she would have, but I like to think I get some credit.  My mother and father did not have my little sister until I was nine years old.  I can tell you it was a huge relief to hand over the title of 'baby' to her.  Being a 'born' teacher, I was a natural at bossing her around and planning her life.  But then came college, and dating, and starting out on my own, and baby sister and I grew apart.  The recent illness of my mother has brought us closer once more since she and I  know Mom in ways that noone else would understand. It is 'weird' how much she sometimes sounds like me and thinks like me since we are very different.  Mom is a stronger thread than I realized.

I just finished my March installment of reading one book a month with an early finish of The Weird Sisters, by Eleanor Brown.  This lovely novel stars three sisters, daughters of a professor, who share a love of reading with their parents.  The scholarly father infuses literary quotes into his conversations with the girls that you will enjoy if you are a lover of the classics or Shakespeare.  I am neither, but I enjoyed this riddling dialogue all the same.  The sisters all return home to help care for their mother who is undergoing cancer treatment, but each young woman is harboring a cancer of her own making.  If you have a sister or are one, you will find yourself relating to one or more of the characters in the novel.  Even sisterhood takes on a voice in the book.  At one point, I thought there was a fourth sister, but then I realized it was simply 'sisterhood' herself speaking.  And the sisters are not 'weird', so to speak.  That, too, is a literary reference. I highly recommend the book to you whether you are a sister or not.



 It was wonderful to raise two daughters.  It gave me an opportunity to try the sisterhood business one more time.  I know I raised two wonderful women.  They will have to judge for themselves how the sisterhood stuff panned out. 

  "You're not like me," Rose said.
Cordy looked at her like a curious squirrel. "Don't be ridiculous.  I'm exactly like you.  We're all exactly alike, you know."
  "Sure. In the way that we're completely different."
                                                                             ~The Weird Sisters~

I always told the girls, "Your friends will come and go.  You will be sisters forever."  I hope that will be a blessing to each one throughout her life.

~Stay close, sisters~