Shirley as Sister

 Shirley as Sister

Shirley,Barbara and Wendy

I have 2 sisters and as you can see by this very early photo we were not close to each other in age. Barbara was born to our parents at end of the bad depression years in England. I was born the very year World War 2 started and my youngest sister Wendy was born soon after the war ended. In that respect we were all born at different times and with 6 or 7 years between each of our ages so it made it somewhat difficult to form real attachments with each other as some sisters do.

We also were all very different in both looks, temperaments , personality and interests so we all were more interested in friends of our own age.

Barbara became my unofficial baby sitter during the war when Dad was away in the army and Mum was working at various wartime jobs. I can remember us making up plays with friends in the garden and drawing and coloring. I can't really remember playing with Wendy ,my younger sister at all.I remember pushing her in her baby stroller when she was  a toddler. I know she preferred to play inside while I liked to be outside. We didn't even go to the same school as each other. So as children we did not get close to each other like other sisters do.

It was slightly better as we all grew up and became young adults. We came together with our individual husbands and families but then when I and my family moved to Canada, being sisters became less and less an important connection in all our lives. When I went to visit my Mum in England I would drop by my sisters but there was really no impetus to do so. It was lovely to see them but they had their lives and we had ours and we tended to drift apart

Ruth ( Barbara's friend) and Barbara

Fortunately as we have all become older keeping in touch has become so much easier and I now correspond with Barbara on a regular basis and she even came to visit a couple of years ago and we had a great time.

Maybe , who knows, Wendy might visit us as well. That would be lovely.