Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas Memories: My New Sister


A present I will never forget - a present I still have. In the months leading up to this Christmas I was one very unhappy girl. Things weren't going my way and there was no way I could change it. And every day there was a very clear reminder of the unfairness of life. You see, when I found out my mother was going to have baby #10, it made perfect sense to me that it would be a girl. That would make us 5 girls and 5 boys. And it would also give me a break from being around only boys all the time (the other girls were all much older). Well, the baby turned out to be a boy. I was devastated. And, frankly, a little peeved. I guess I took it out on my mom a lot. I kept begging her to have another baby, and it better be a sister! My friend, Judy, just got a baby sister and she already had a bunch of sister and no brothers. Not fair! So here we are again, all of us gathered around the Christmas tree in the living room. I had a really big box with my name on it. I eagerly opened the package and there....was this very big doll. I wasn't sure what to think, as I had not received a doll for the last couple of years. But I soon got the message as I heard my mom say, "Here's your new baby sister." I don't know if she said it or not, but the message I heard in my heart was, "I don't want to hear any more about getting a baby sister. This is what you get and there aren't going to be any more babies." I named her Mary Ann. Not quite the same as a live sister, but Mary Ann became a good friend; she has been with me for a very long time now. A year ago I took her to the doll doctor and got her a wig (a lot of her hair had fallen out), got her eyelashes repaired, and gave her a good cleaning. I also bought her some new clothes. She now sits in my living room day after day. She looks pretty good for being close to 50, doesn't she? By the way, the glasses she is wearing did not come with her. She is modeling my new glasses. P.S. There did come a day when I fell in love with my baby brother :-)

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