Brothers and Sisters - A Necessity

Saturday, my brother from Orlando and his wife, and cute as all get-out 10 year old son came to town for a 50th birthday dinner with me and my sister, whom I haven't seen in two years and her husband.

It was magnificent seeing them all again. We were all so close growing up. At least four of us now live in the same southern state, with only one brother still in PA. My one sister from way up north in the state could not come. But we had a lot of fun laughing and talking.

I often forget that even though I've turned 60, that my siblings have been aging as well. I still picture them all as teenagers, before we all went our own ways. I always expect to see the teenagers they were. My brother is starting to look a lot like my maternal grandfather, and I think both my sisters tend to look like my paternal grandmother. It's the nose I think. They have thin noses, and I have a big honker like my dad. I'm pretty sure I take after my maternal grandmother. I have pix of her, and, being the oldest, I was actually around when she was living. My body shape matches hers to a t.

It was funny when my nephew brought out his bag of presents he had bought for his father. He got him exploding soap and a shocking calculator, from a magic shop.

I look at all my own kids now. They absolutely NEED each other. I moved my one son with Down Syndrome on Friday over from the high school he had been attending to the high school where five of his siblings are attending. Before the move he was difficult to get into the tub in the AM, and difficult to get him to go on the bus to his old school. Sometimes he would strip naked right before the bus came and we'd have to redress him. Sometimes wed end up driving him to school. Since the move to the new school, he gets his bath without trouble every AM and RUNS out to the bus to get on.

Siblings are important when one is growing up, but they are also important when you are an adult. All 9 of my kids who still live at home are developmentally delayed, and will require supported living arrangements or group homes when the time is right. I just want to assure that they will be able to regularly get together with each other when I'm gone. It's just so important.

People who grew up as only children don't get it. People with 5, 10,15 or 20 kids or more thoroughly understand.