🎈🎈🎈🎈 A Tribute to my Beloved Sister 🎈🎈🎈🎈

Because she's alive and well and it's her birthday!
Tributes to those we love generally come after they have passed on. I can’t wait to give that tribute because, quite frankly, I may get my heavenly-orders before she gets hers. One advantage of marrying young has been that I have had many years, not only to grow up together with my husband, Ron, but also his sister, Karen. I had no younger siblings, but Ron’s 4-years younger sister, became my sister and dear friend.

Karen was the giggling little 9-year-old sister that got to see her 13-year old brother and 12-year-old ME holding hands under the table at Kip’s Big Boy Restaurant in South Oak Cliff Dallas after Sunday night church services. She adored her big brother and believed anything he told her. She would gladly trade her dime for his penny or nickel because “Sis, I’m happy to give you this big coin for your little one.” Allies, the two of them, who could conjure up some brilliant child-versions of mighty exploits.

Years later, Karen and I had a niche-market estate sales business. We marketed the home and its contents. Our merry hearts, sense of humor and out-spoken faith opened the doors for us to have a thriving, successful business of which people would tell us “You're the BEST!" The estate sale business is a work-out, but loving and helping people in time of need became not just a business, but our mission field.

It was at about the same time that Ron became very ill with Stage 4 Kidney Cancer. Karen and I were close but never closer than this season. She went with us to almost every doctor appointment. She provided a shoulder to cry on during some of our toughest times and a merry heart to laugh with us during hilarious times. Karen and I were Ron’s prayer team. We would go for walks during “stressful times’ at the hospital. Worry could have consumed us, but we turned those times into stretching-our-faith-muscles times.

After Dad passed away, Karen assured Mom “You’ll always have a home with us when you're ready." George and Karen made sure that happened when Mom could no longer live alone. They have been hopelessly devoted to mom in every way. Karen has been relentless in her faith, determined in hope,and unparalled in her care for mom. I can’t begin to adequately explain the kindness in her heart or the depth of her love that even goes beyond mom and her immediate family. She has always had a one or two-at-a-time ministry to those who were mistreated or misguided in some way. She is not only beautiful on the outside, she has a beautiful soul. She sees the beauty in others. She is remarkable. She has become known for caring for the uncared for right until they pass onto heaven.

Truly, to convey all I want to say is inadequate in a mere blog, but I hope I've at least conveyed my deepest love and utmost respect for my sis. Karen, I was chosen by your brother and he chose me to be your sister. And I am the blessed one. Happy Birthday, my faithful and beloved sister. 🎈🎈🎈

Try to be a Rainbow in Somebody's Cloud

I never followed Maya Angelou’s life or writings much, but hearing of her passing from this life, I was drawn to know more about what made her so endearing. In stature, she was six feet tall, but the imprint she left because of her remarkable life is beyond measure. She was raped by her mother's boyfriend at the age of seven. She testified against the man, who was later beaten to death by a mob. She said, "My 7-1/2-year-old logic deduced that my voice had killed him, so I stopped speaking for almost six years."

She dropped out of school at age 14 to become the city's first African-American female cable car conductor. She later returned to high school, graduated at 17, and gave birth a few weeks later. Maya never went to college, but she learned six languages and received more than 30 honorary doctoral degrees. She taught American studies at Wake Forest University, worked with Martin Luther King to advance civil rights, and published best-selling works of fiction and poetry. In 2010, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.

When I saw this quote by her, “Try to be a rainbow in somebody’s cloud”, I felt her tender heart. That quote came from a book, "Letter to My Daughter", she wrote, and dedicated to the daughter she never had. In the book she shared about her tumultuous life that taught her lessons in compassion and fortitude: how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex, paradoxically, left her with her greatest gift, a son.

I wanted to share a little about her here because, once again, we see how miserable someone’s life started…..didn't determine where she ended up. But where she started, was the seed for the harvest of blessings later in life. She put the past behind, but used it to fuel her future. She determined to move forward with a tenacious faith and will to make life better for herself and others. And the moral of this post, is to urge you and I to take the mistakes, failures, disappointments and miseries of our past, and use them to propel us to our future, and to help others along the way. In fact – let’s be the rainbows in other people's clouds. That would be a grand starting point in writing OUR memoirs!