Sisters, Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters...

My mother and her sister were very close for many reasons. They were born 11 months apart, and thus were close in age. As you can see in the picture, they were alike in appearance at that age. Mom is on the right, and may have been responsible for her sister's remarkable haircut.

They were children of the second (but not last) wife of their father. They came equipped with two older brothers, but they were much younger, so they had their sisterhood in common. I think my Mom idolized her brothers... they were both Coast Guardsmen later in life, but she and her sister had this bond.

When they were in their teens, my grandmother and grandfather got a divorce. They never told the girls what was happening, but put them in a boarding school at the beginning of the troubles, so their bond intensified. Mom was ever the older sister. The boarding school continued even though my grandmother remarried as her new husband, while he thought the girls were great, didn't want them around. And the bond continued to grow.

The sisters, at 15? or so... Mom is on the left. This was a very tiny photo, and the quality is not great... sorry!

The good news about this apparent abandonment was that my mother met my father while at Mabel Scott Rancho. I have a wonderful bit of video of Mom and Dad and her sister and her husband taken in 1940. They were both such cute girls. Mom was pregnant with my brother at the time. The sweetness of their happy marriages was so evident. Both of them remained happily married until their husbands died.

They were separated for years, as my Mother's sister married yet another Coast Guard man, and she was all over the country with him. When they finally settled, it was no where near where we lived... ultimately in Seattle.

My cousin brought my Aunt to see Mom sometime after one or more of her strokes. He had gone up to Seattle to pick up his mom, who had become almost as ... impaired as Mom, but without the attendant strokes. He drove a great deal out of his way so that the sisters could have one more visit. I was struck by how they laughed and giggled together... they seemed almost as young as the first picture in many ways, and I was pleased that neither one thought the other old or strange...

Sisters... such sweet sisters...