My Sister at 20 years old.I talked to my sister today. She lives in Florida with her Daughter Sheila and her Husband Gary as she has for the last probably twenty years or more. Every year, we try to talk around the Christmas season our way of staying in touch. Neither of us can die because we have this annual ritual that neither of us can break. We have not seen each other since they all moved to Florida and although I keep saying that this is the year and I am going to make that trip, so far it hasn’t happened.

My sisters name is Barbara Eileen but for some reason has gone by Peg or Peggy her whole life. There is probably a story behind that somewhere but I have not heard it. Peg is ten years older than me which makes her ninety two (almost). She sounded upbeat when I spoke with her, getting a little hard of hearing and spends a lot of time in a wheelchair but she still has all of her faculties. No sign of any of those nasty old peoples conditions like Dementia, thank goodness. Our Mother was 94 when she died so Peg looks like she has every chance to make it that far with any luck. To keep herself busy, she does a lot of knitting. Being ten years older than me, she actually participated in World War 2 and joined the ATS serving as a truck driver. She made it to Europe but not on the front line as back then, women were not allowed anywhere close to the fighting. How times have changed. Following the end of the war, she came back and married a Scotsman and they raised two kids, a boy and a girl. They also volunteered to let me live with them for a few years during another unsettled time in my crazy upbringing for which, later on as I matured, I was forever grateful.

Now, sixty six years later, we talk on the phone several times a year and reminisce of days gone by when life was so much simpler and we were both younger and in good health. Ah, those were the days. If only we could wind back the clock…

I wrote a similar piece a couple of years ago which can also read by following this link.

Written 12/27/2017