Create Your Own Sisterhood

Keno - is a lottery-like or bingo-like gambling game often played at modern casinos, and is also offered as a game in some state lotteries.(wiki). To most people. To me, she is my sister. This is the name I gave her when I was too young to pronounce her actual name.


I call her my ‘little’ sister, however in reality she is only 19 months younger than I am. This does not stop me from being beyond protective of her. You hurt her, I hurt you – and I don’t hurt anyone. In the 28+ years she’s been around I’ve only had to ‘step up’ twice. Once after a high school dance (at no fault of her own) I had to put the fear into a clueless twit who thought my sister was attempting to steal her boyfriend. The second time was to inform a boyfriend of hers that if he hurt her, I would back over him with my car. I think this could be why he left the province shortly after the break up?!

We haven’t always gotten along. The first major blow-up of our childhood (that I can remember), is the ‘Barbie fiasco’ – where I deemed myself to old to play with barbies. There was yelling, and crying, and then we didn’t talk for days – it was heart wrenching, but major growing up needed to be done. Another huge fight over clothing involved hair pulling and a lysol can – our only physical fight. For the years where we were forced to live together we fought daily.

Once I moved away for school we grew apart. Rarely talking to each other, and only seeing each other on holidays. We were too busy with our own lives to care what the other was up to. It was when she decided to go to school in the city where I was living, and moved a block away from me that we became close again. That was 6 years ago, and we’ve had one fight since, where the only other person in the house threatened to call our mother – like that would stop us!!!

She & I are two completely different people and the exact same person all at once. We don’t look alike (depending on who you talk to), our personalities are very different, and we often disagree with what the other is up to, but we share this connection that over powers it all. It’s a connection that allows us to roll our eyes at our mother without being caught, a connection that allows us to finish each other’s sentiences, and a connection that provides us with an instinct when something is wrong with the other sister. If you get us on the phone – you can’t tell which one of us you are talking to, but in person she is by far ‘girlier’ than I will ever be.

Let’s say you get married and 7 months later you get a call from your sister saying she needs a change. Would you consider finding her work and moving her in with you and your brand shiney new husband? Well I did, and a year later I wouldn’t take back one moment of it. Our best conversations now are had late at night at the kitchen table, or while grocery shopping together, or by e-mails throughout the day about what to have for dinner.

In the past year I’ve watched her completely change her life around, and I’m so happy and excited for her. With these changes comes the inevitable day where she’ll move out, and as much as I want to tie her to my house – who doesn’t love another set of hands in the kitchen, a million more pairs of shoes, and someone to watch ‘chick’ shows with? I’ll have to let her go.

I was supposed to create a ‘sisterhood’ with a large group of friends, and I have this, but when you have a real sister nothing else compares. When you can see and hear yourself in another person (and it’s not your mother or ‘the nana’ – phew!), you know there is a bond that no large group of women can compete with.