Surprise Siblings

Things don’t always go as planned. Life is full of surprises. Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. I could go on, cliche after cliche. But there is truth in all cliches. Here is my truth. I had a change in life plans when I was in high school. My mom died when I was a sophomore. My dad and I moved in, a few months later, with my brother Jim and his family.

All of a sudden, after being technically an only child (my older siblings grown and gone before I was six) I had siblings again. Debbie, Karen, and Jimmy. My nieces and nephew suddenly became my little brother and sisters! I wonder if my life would have been different, if this had not happened. I’m sure that is the case. I certainly would have missed out on a lot of fun. It was great being in this family. The games we would play. My favorite was sliding cookies across a dining room table to see who could get closest to the edge, without them falling off. I’m sure their mom, Eileen, didn’t appreciate the dirty floors this would create.

I knew their friends, the Lever sisters, the Kents, and who could forget Bossy Bowman! Of course, everything wasn’t unicorns and rainbows. We had our disagreements like sibling do. Debbie and I would fight over A-Treat Orange Soda. Wow, that was so delicious! Jimmy was only about five at this time, so I absolve him of this but his sisters would antagonize me whenever my girlfriend visited. They tried to eavesdrop as to what was going on in my attic bedroom. I’m surprised neither of them grew up to be a private detective!

Here we are in 2022. I’ll be turning seventy this year. My little “siblings” are in their sixties and fifties. It seems like just yesterday; they were helping me make signs for my campaign for Student Council Vice-President. I won, by the way! I can honestly look back at these few years and say they were some of the best years of my life. Debbie, Karen, and Jimmy will always be my little brother and sisters. Very often surprises work out just fine.