Happy Birthday Sister

What I consider one of the big days of the year beyond my birthday. The birthdays of all my family are the most important days besides Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 So I wish my older sister Barb a happy birthday today Jan. 7. She actually is my only sister as well. There is nothing like having an older sister. She is eight and half years older than me so I don’t remember her until she was a teenager and primarily when she went off to college. Most of my life I have known her as an adult so in some ways she is like a second mother. She used to take my two brothers and me when we were young to movies. I can’t imagine taking younger siblings to movies when you are a teenager but she did. I am sure we were trouble for her in those times.

When I was about four years old I was cooking eggs on the stove and my pajamas caught on fire. She was in the same room and called out for our mother to come and put the fire out. Barb was the one who saved my life that day. I am not sure what would have happened to me she was not there. I was in the hospital for six weeks and when Barb got home from school each day she took care of my two brothers while our mother would go into the hospital to spend time with me along with our dad. Barb sacrificed a lot in those years for my brothers and me. I don’t remember the fire experience at all however you ask Barb about that day tears will come to her eyes.

She went to college at the University of Oregon in Eugene Oregon. It must have been very interesting times since it was in the 60s. We made trips to visit her number of times to see her and our dad enjoyed doing some sail boat racing on the lake near Eugene.

Her first job out of college that I remember anyway was at a record store in Portland. What I remember was that she came home with the Beatles album “Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. I asked her how I could become a member. I would say now it is funny that I said that though I was somewhat serious at the time.

Barb went on to go after her master’s degree at University of Puget Sound in nearby Tacoma Washington. It is where she met her beloved husband Bob. They were married a couple months before I graduated from high school.

Barb and Bob have two sons Ken and Connor. In fact Connor’s birthday is tomorrow Jan. 8 so I wish him a happy birthday as well and Ken’s birthday is Jan. 18.;so very easy to remember their birthdays. Barb, Ken, and Connor lost Bob five and half years ago. You could see from the beginning of their relationship that they fit right together.  Many of the insecurities Barb had before meeting Bob were taken away when she met him. Barb did not finish her master’s degree and they moved to British Columbia and then onto Quebec a few years after their wedding. Both Ken and Connor were born in Vancouver. Bob was born and raised in Canada. His father Ken was in the Canadian Air Force. When we met Bob his parents at that point were living in Lakewood, Washington so we would spend holidays with them.  It was not hard for Barb to go to Canada because mother was born and raised in Canada. Barb was born in Seattle, Washington however spent some quality time with grandparents in Canada in her early years so she always felt very comfortable in Canada. So when her and Bob moved to Canada it was an easy transition for her. She comes for visits to Gig Harbor about once a year or so however Quebec is has been home for her many years.

So you can see how important family is for me and how it should be for us all. Again Barb happy birthday!