Family Echoes

I am one of four sisters and our names all begin with “K”. Growing up we were called the 4K’s. I’m K3 in the birth order.

So far, a great deal of my focus for 2016 has been on my sisters. K4 had knee surgery last month. I wish we lived closer so I could help her. K2 and K4 are in my online Journal Your Legacy course.

K1 had a milestone birthday this month – 60. K2 and I stole her away from her busy life for a whole afternoon – such a treat to have her all to ourselves. We were the decoys for the big party in her own home later that day. Surprise!

Now today, K2 celebrates her birthday. She is coming up behind K1. We’ll have our special girl’s lunch on Sunday.

A number of years ago, K4 gave me 365 Treasured Moments for Sisters as a birthday gift. It’s a perpetual desktop calendar that I flip through year after year.

As K1 turned 60 last month, I found this calendar page so appropriate – 

Often, in old age, they become each other’s

Chosen and most happy companions.

In addition to their shared memories of

Childhood and of their relationship to each

other’s children, they share memories…that

carry the echo of their mother’s voice.

– Margaret Mead

Oh, so true and well put. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying 60’s old, especially as I sneak up on it, too. But, I remember when our grandma was 60!

Margaret Mead is right, as we age our closeness becomes more apparent and precious. We got to bear witness to each other’s lives from the very beginning. Even if we sit together in silence now, we feel secure in our knowing of each other.

We’ve lived through the playful teasing – an uneaten hamburger served at breakfast, a nose attached to glasses that frighten in the night, 3 voices chanting, “You have a boyfriend,” or living with a nickname like “Miss Picky-picky.”

We’ve laughed uncontrollably around a dinner table of spaghetti served with Colona red wine and cried together over the threat of the wooden spoon.

The saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” came quite naturally to us. We got involved in the lives of our nieces and nephews, and still do. We want to know them like our mother knew them. We reach out to help them and it’s rewarding to us as we watch them reach out to each other, too.

We’re lucky and we know it. Our sister-bond is strong and enviable. We have built-in support, love and forgiveness.

Each of us has friends who want to know how they can join our club. But, as happy as we are to include our friends in social events, you just don’t slip into this club. We’ve been building it for almost 60 years!

Sisters “carry the echo of their mother’s voice” in everything we do. We hear Mom’s voice coming out of our own mouths and each other’s. “Why don’t you put your feet up?” We hear her sing, “I love you, a bushel and a peck…”

Dad echoes, too. We hear his lessons, “Don’t compromise yourself.”Accordion music floods our memories. I smiled when I opened his accordion case the other day and his smell wafted out. It was like he was standing right beside me – smoky and musky.

We see Mom and Dad in each other all the time. We see them and ourselves in our kids. Now, as grandchildren have arrived for K1 and K4, we see how it goes – on and on.

From birthday to birthday, we are reminded  how fortunate we are. We share 60 years of gratitude for family connection, the never-ending story, and especially, the echoes.