My handphone rang three times between 7.30am and 8.30am yesterday before I finally picked it up. I am a night owl and whenever I can, I will try to sleep until it is almost noon.
But yesterday morning, my younger sister, C, was impatiently waiting for me to pick her up from her home. And there was no way I could continue sleeping with the phone ringing in my ears. Why was she so impatient, I wondered.
I just saw C on Saturday. After I picked her up from her house, we had breakfast together. There is nothing like a good breakfast to keep one’s energy levels up throughout the day.
After breakfast, we shopped for the items we needed to cook lunch. After that, we went back to my house. She helped me to sweep and mop my floor. She also helped me to prepare the lunch which we ate together. I later sent her home on my way to work in the afternoon.
For the past two years, C and I have been meeting each other every weekend. I cannot remember when this funny routine actually began. Maybe it is a sign of old age and the passing of time.
I am actually six years older than C. When I was growing up, she was too young to play with me. I was not close to her until now.
But a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since our childhood. C is now a widow and the mother of four children. Meanwhile, I am a mother of one. Life has made us more understanding and tolerant towards each other.
I look forward to her visits every weekend because she is a good cleaner. She helps me keep my house spick and span.My mother, an Alzheimer’s patient, is incapable of doing any household chores now. All she does whole day long is to lie down on the sofa and nap. She cannot remember whether she has eaten or not.
I look forward to C’s visits every weekend because she is also a good story teller and has lots of stories to share about her friends and children and our childhood days.
Yesterday, she recalled some of our late father’s favourite dishes and his generosity. Her stories made me realise how much I missed the old man.
Whenever she comes visiting, C also never fails to bring gifts in the form of vegetables, fruits or meat. She regards these gifts as donations to our dear mother who lives with me.
I look forward to C’s visits as well because she never complains about the food I cook. A poor cook herself, she eats everything I churn up in the kitchen. That is why I love to have her around whenever I experiment with new food recipes. I give her all the extra food I have cooked.
Besides C, I have one elder sister and another younger sister. C is the simplest of all my sisters. She was not good in her studies and stopped schooling after Primary Six.
C and I were not close before but now, we are closer than ever before. The six-year age difference between us is not apparent and evident anymore. It also does not matter anymore.
Indeed, my friends, life and times can change us for the better or worse.
Over the years, both C and I have lost our father, a brother and few relatives. As a result, we have emerged stronger, wiser and more appreciative of each other.
Just the other day, I met a toddler who was six years younger than her older sibling. “Never mind,” I told her mother. “When they are both older, the age difference will not be apparent and evident.”
The lady might not be aware of it but I was speaking from experience and straight from my heart.
