Walking the Wall

I was seventeen years old when my sister Joanna was born and while babies were not unheard of in my family (I’m one of seven children and the second oldest)–I wasn’t too young to be annoyed or too old to care and she became a bit like my first child. I was in love at first sight and I think the feeling was mutual. I would steal her out of bed at night to sleep with me, or would climb into her crib and sleep with her. I took her everywhere I could. When I got married, she was about three and she was very confused and not very happy. She had to be removed during the wedding for being upset and when my new husband and I got in the car to leave–she tried to climb in the car as well. The first weeks I was married and would leave my mom’s to go to my new apartment, I remember her standing in the window of the house crying–it broke my heart.

I thought of that little girl when I saw her standing at the end of the aisle getting ready to walk down it to her very handsome husband to be (welcome to the family, Caleb) and it was bittersweet. Life goes by so fast, so very very fast. How did that little baby turn into a lovely bride–when did that happen? It just slipped in there and suddenly I was back in the church helping her out of her wedding dress and she was no longer a bride even–she was a woman, a wife, beautiful, strong…but still, and always, a baby sister.

I love you Joanna.