MY DEAR SISTERS

 HOW TIME HAS FLOWN

My tiny sister Di in the middle

My niece Amy with my sister Andie



It has been 30yrs or more since I was in your company, with me moving to America. I remember when I first saw these few photos, I kept looking and looking, thinking "Who is this, they look familiar" It took me awhile to realize they are older versions of the young faces stored in my memory. Sadly my photo albums were stolen along with the yearly updates Andie and Mommy used to send (even in those you looked the same). I was shocked how much time had gone by.

We didn't exactly have an easy life growing up, trying our best to deal with things we didn't understand. We were a lot closer as very young children in cypress, it saddens me that we slowly grew apart after being sent back to England. I am happy to know that you two are closer now, visiting each other, being able to have quality time with each others families.

Do you remember that huge fig tree Andie in cypress? climbing up and sitting amongst the branches eating fresh figs, they were huge. So ripe when we split them and took a bite of the sweet red flesh inside, the sweet sticky juice ran down our arms, under our chins and all over our bare tummies. Now there's a couple of problems eating figs in that fashion, the first is eat too many you end up with the run~hunnies, the second is it gets so itchy you end up with a rash that you need to scratch the life out of it. The time finally came when mommy had had enough of our fig eating problems, we were forbidden to leave the garden and climb the tree.

 My big sister was very clever at figuring things out plus she wasn't afraid of anything not even the almighty wrath of mommy. Seeing the branch hanging over the fence into the garden, I could see the wheels turning in my clever sisters head. When mommy came out to see what we were up to, there was Andie sitting on the branch over the garden tossing figs down to us. As the almighty wrath of mommy started to build pressure in order to blow, my dear clever sister defused it by calmly explaining she hadn't left the garden, she had climbed up the fence onto the branch hanging over the garden....Therefore hadn't broken the rule of leaving the garden or climbing the tree.

Finally back in England, we hadn't been back that long, I think it was the first year. Andie and I woke very early this particular day, it was cold and still dark out. It was CHRISTMAS DAY!! We sat silently by the bedroom door, listening intently trying to figure out if Santa was in the house. Eventually we plucked up the courage, not waking Di just in case Santa was in the house, we tip toed downstairs. Gingerly we peeked round the living room door, there was no movement, like little mice we checked the rest of downstairs and all was clear.

 By the lights of the Christmas tree we eagerly started to examine the gifts, trying to guess what they were and was it too soon to wake mommy and daddy. Suddenly our hearts stop, the looks on our faces ...utter fear...THUMP THUMP THUMP one stair at a time. Convinced Santa was coming and we were in serious trouble  we managed to hide behind the sofa. Holding our breaths our hearts pounding the door slowly opens, with that feeling someone was about to grab us the light comes on and a little voice says

 "has Santa been yet"