When I was just a little baby my sister would stare at me in my crib until I cried.
When I was three years old, and my sister was six, she gave me a haircut. She also gave my dolls haircuts.
We fought often: she always won. She fought dirty: biting, kicking, pulling hair and pinching, whatever would give her the upper hand.
We shared a room as children and she’d always insist on total darkness at bedtime, even though she knew I was afraid of the dark
When she learnt how to French plait hair, she would teach anyone else who asked except me.
We attended the same high school for 5 years. In that time she barely said 20 words to me. We never played or socialized together at all if we could help it.
Once when I accidentally bumped her and caused her to spill her cup of cocoa, she poured the whole cup on me.

I thought I’d always hate my sister as much as I did back then, which is why is still surprises me just how close we have become now. I’m sure I did and said things that hurt her too, but I wasn’t very good at seeing things from any perspective but my own back then.

As chance would have it, we ended up studying the same course at the same time when we started our tertiary studies. We drove together to save on petrol. Mutual introversion banded us together in the early days, and as a result we ended up in the same friend group. Convenience resulted in us doing our major projects together.

Six years later we work at the same company – Sis submitted my CV here when I was thoroughly fed up of my old job. We live in the same neighborhood: it fitted into the required price range and was suitably close to my parent’s house, as we both go there several times a week to ride our respective horses. These days we may even share a horse on occasion, my sister doing the dressage training and me the jumping training, something totally unheard of in the past.

We’re both quite private people (say I, broadcasting it to the world on a blog!) who don’t volunteer much about what’s affecting or upsetting us when the hurt is deep. You need to know us well before we’ll tell you what’s really going on, and even then, you need to know that what we might mention in passing is a huge hurt in our lives. So when my sister mentioned a few months ago a certain difficulty she’s been going through for a while, I knew it was no small thing.

I’m amazed at how much I feel for her in this time, there is nothing much that I can do but be there for her while she acts all strong, and it breaks me apart that I can’t do more for her. To my sis: who would have thought we’d ever become so close? I love you and I’m praying that everything works out for you, and soon.