Sisters-of-the Heart

We've been talking about sisters on Facebook recently. I have only brothers. One of my wise granddaughters reminded me that one can have sisters who are not sisters by blood. These sisters are called "sisters-of-the-heart."

The first sister of my heart is Inez who married one of my brothers. We have known each other since I was ten or so. She treated me like an equal. She invited me to visit her in her apartment on the second floor of the post office (now known as the Old Bank Building). We shared a love of books and she generously loaned me some of her books to read. She was my model for how to treat my own young sisters-in-law when that time came. I had the honor of being one of the candle lighters at her wedding to my brother. Our relationship is even closer now.

The second sister-of-my-heart was my young sister-in-law Jane. She was eight when I married into the family. As time passed we became sisters-of-the-heart. She was very special in my life. When she was older, we could walk down the street and one of us would see something that tickled our funny bone - all we needed to do was look at each other and know it tickled both of us. We played many card games of "Spit" and she won 80% of those games. I continued to play because it was such a kick when I could finally beat her. She had such great eye-hand coordination. When she went away to college, I knew how homesick she was so I wrote her once a week all four years. We talked about everything and shared our deepest secrets. She asked me to be her Matron of Honor when she got married.

The third sister-of-my-heart is Ann. I really didn't know her growing up because she was several years younger than I. We got acquainted when her brother Don and I got together in 1995. It didn't take long for her to become a sister-of-my-heart. She encouraged me to go ahead and marry Don and not wait for any period of time. She and her husband opened their home to us and even found a Metnodist pastor to come there to marry us - and they were in the middle of moving from near Topeka to a home on a hill near Hays. Ann stood up with me when Don and I got married. We always had such a good time together.

These three ladies are sisters-of-my-heart and as such were a huge blessing in my life. I shared three weddings with these three sisters. The first photo is Ann. The second photo is Inez with my brother Bob.