My sister is gone back home to Alabama. I feel like there is a hole now in my life. For the past month she has been everywhere I have been and I loved it. Now, there is no one waiting for me at home at lunch time. No suitcase under the desk. No hand constantly reaching to find mine while we walk side-by-side. No sister within my reach at any given moment. And I am sad. Sadder than I or my poor husband expected me to be, but I am grateful we had a month. So grateful for the shared experiences, the inside jokes, the spiritual growth. If the cost was a day of sadness - I will gladly pay. Bye Kayla. I will see you soon - and one day we will be in Heaven, where time won't matter - and where, if we are apart for a thousand years, we will have another thousand to catch each other up on what was missed. I love you.

This is my youngest sister. She has come to stay with me for a month, and I couldn't be happier about it.

When I look at her I see so much of myself (not just physically, although that is striking as well) - she has the same fierce practicality mixed with a driving need to please everyone. I watch her sensitivity to others feelings - watch her mood fall and rise with those around her - I get nervous for her. I want to tell her to be her own person - be confident in her own happiness, because she is happy. I want to tell her not be scared of so many things - the world is not the place my grandmother has made her believe, and that in general - it's o.k. to be wrong, and its o.k. if everything you do is not perfect. But how can I teach her these things when she learned most of them from me? I am 14 years older than her - I can remember playing with her in the middle of the night when she was wide awake and every one else was asleep. I can remember singing to her - one specific lullaby that would always make her stop crying. I can remember that she said my name first.