Adventures of Ole & Lena

Okay - here I am again, a day late and a dollar short - well, I'm ALWAYS a dollar short, but usually I'm on time. Time has just been getting away from me with all that's been going on.

On Wednesday I had intended to write about my Big Sister - it would have been her birthday, but I won't tell you how old she would have been. Let's just say she's substantially older than me, and the oldest of us kids. She died suddenly in November of 1993 at an age younger than I am now. She had a fatal heart attack during the night. She was a heavy smoker and really didn't take very good care of herself physically. Her cholesterol level just a few weeks prior to her death was 362, and she wasn't doing anything about it. She ate anything and everything that she wanted - lots of sweets and always used real whipping cream when she cooked. Slathered butter on everything - you get the idea. But the uncanny thing was that she was very thin. She was one of these people who must have had an extremely efficient metabolism. But then again, maybe it was the smoking that kept her metabolism so revved up.

She left three kids and five grandchildren behind when she died. Two of her kids were married and then there was her youngest daughter. A real spoiled, self-centered young woman. I'm not going to go there today as it takes too long, but you can read about her here in one of my old entries:

http://mahvalicious.diaryland.com/070203_24.html

Big Sister and I spent a lot of time together as she lived in The City (about 7 miles from me), although I have to say we were never really "close." She was a very superficial person as far as her immediate family went, never sharing much of herself physically or emotionally; always a very secretive person. Although she seemed to be very open with friends and more distant relatives. She was never very willing to do things to help her immediate family out, but was always the first volunteer when it came to outsiders. This had a tendency to create a lot of hurt feelings within the family.

She got married when she was 23 years old to a man that my parents didn't like very much. He was an alcoholic and eventually became physically abusive. She was married in the country church a mile down the road from where my parents lived, but she never invited my parents or me to the wedding, in fact she never even told us she was getting married. Following the wedding that night, all the cars came streaming past my parents' house, honking their horns, etc., on their way down to the Local Watering Hole where they held the reception. Needless to say my parents were hurt - this being their oldest daughter and all. She did a lot of things that were sneaky and somewhat hurtful to the family in both her teenage and adult life.

I wish I could have had a relationship with her like I have with Big Brother. He and I have had a lot of fun over the years.

Anyway, here's a picture of Big Sister, taken when she was about four years old.

That's all I have for today - Lovely Daughter just stopped over and wants me to go flower shopping with her.

Later - Lena