MY SISTER, LINDA

One thing I could never understand in my whole life is the relationship I have with my sister or the lack of relationship I have with her. In our family it was just my sister and I with four brothers, Linda was older than me and you would think that with her and I being the only girls we would have had some kind of camaraderie. Sad to say that was never the case. I believe from the day I was born she hated me and all my life she made sure I knew it. Granted her and I are very different people and if you knew us you would probably never believe we came from the same womb. I know this for a fact because growing up I heard that all the time from people that knew my sister and I.

I always viewed my sister as one of the bitterest people I knew. Growing up we had to share a room together so when it came to knowing her I was an authority on the subject of Linda. I remember a conversation with my dad one time when he was describing the personalities of his kids and when it came to my sister he described her as the bitch. True, Linda was very hard to get along with, and if she didn’t like you she would let you know it. Not to say she didn’t have friends, she did but they had to meet her standards. Those standards were very high to, you had to be popular, you had to have money, and you could not have any physical inadequacy, needless to say my sister didn’t have very many friends, which I attribute to her bitterness. Even though we didn’t get along, I felt sorry for her.

I had hope as adults we would have at least become civil to each other or at least act like we were family but it never happened. Linda always viewed me as white trash. I guess that is because I don’t care about material things like she does and I never went to college. There were a few fleeting times she would talk to me but that was only because she needed to know something or needed my help. I guess to Linda I was like some kind of disease that if she got to close she might catch what I have.

Linda as bitter as she was did manage to get married but as with Linda the man she married had to meet her standards so she married a lawyer with money of course. She now lives in a big house with all the luxuries that come with being rich but she is still miserable and seems not to enjoy life. Linda married for money and not for love, her kids can’t stand her, and her husband is never home. The last time I saw my sister it was at my father’s funeral two years ago and she didn’t even talk to me or acknowledge my presence. It had been a while since I had seen her, she looked anorexic and as if life had beaten her up but the one thing that didn’t shock me was she was still the same ole bitter Linda I had grown up with. She was still giving the dirty looks to people that she thought were beneath her and would only talk to people of a certain class and because of that I knew she was not going to belittle herself and talk to me.

I do have to thank Linda for something though; she did step up and acted like a big sister to me without her even realizing it. Linda taught me a very valuable lesson about life and made me who I am today. She taught me to be kind to everyone and not judge people for what they don’t have or look like, that there is more to life than material things, and life is short so enjoy what time you have here. I may never see Linda again but I do hope for her sake she learns to stop and smell the roses and learns to love the people in her life and if she does learn this then maybe she can consider this a gift from her little sister.