Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sister Baby & Baby Sister


I LOVE this picture ... two of my best girls.


If you loyally follow my blog ... and you should ;) ... then you are already well-acquainted with Sister Baby. Now I'm introducing you to Baby Sister ... Carol Lynn Washington.


During the worst of my bad days ... and I've had some BAD ones in recent years -- when horrible circumstances or just my own chronically low self-esteem threatened to undo me, I knew that there was at least one other person (besides Shemetra) who thought I was good man. Sister Washington has always had my back!


When we were kids, we used to call her Mommy ... because that's how she has always acted toward Darryl and me. Now I ain't gonna lie and say that we didn't resent it at times while we were growing up -- I mean, chick IS my BABY sister, after all. But now that I am older it is very comforting for me to have her as a second mother. Carol is simply one of the most encouraging and supportive (and, yes, protective) friends that I have. I confidently call my sister my friend ... and how cool is that. It is also very cool that my daughter, besides looking like her Auntie Carol, has some of those same matronly characteristics. She is convinced that her brother Jared ... though 8 years older than her ... is in near constant need of her guidance and insight. I guess it's in the genes.


Carol is about the sweetest person on the planet ... but don't mistake it for weakness. Mess too much with her or one of hers and there will be, as my grandmother used to say, "hell to tell the captain!" The earrings and shoes will come off and somebody will get hurt. What an amazing woman she is. One day she can wrestle down a grown man (as she used to have to at times when she worked as a correctional officer in one of Boston's notorious lock-ups) and the next day she can be in tears because my son and hers have had an argument. That's my sister y'all. Ain't she somethin'!


4 comments:

Vallypee said...

Yep Van, she really sounds like somethin', and the best sister anyone could have. Lovely bits of irony peeking through here now and then ;-)

Vallypee said...

Hope you are ok, Van?

VanO said...

Quite okay dear ... been very busy at work and a little sick. Thanks for your comments. Yes I am really blessed to be close to my brother and sister ... they are the coolest people.

I will be writing (and reading ...still haven't caught up with you blog yet ... bad VanO)more over the holiday (I hope).

Vallypee said...

Van, I was so interested to read your comment about my Sinterklaas post...I never knew this face blackening thing happened there too, but for what an ironic reason! I love how we can learn so much about each other.

I also love the fact that children are so unaffected by the prejudices we all seem to learn about and then hopefully discard when we grow up. To them, Sinterklaas, Zwartepiet and all that goes with it is just about Christmas tradition and nothing else ever occurs to them, so it's really precious to see children of all races with their faces blackened together.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my blog posts, Van. I'm so glad to have found you too. My congratulations to your wife. She has a lovely husband :-)