Meet my sister...

Cory-Ash 4x6
Originally uploaded by Sunshyn93.

{First let me say this is the best recent photo I have of her, Ashleigh just happens to be in it, LOL!}

Cory is 9 years younger than me and I've often felt more like a mother to her than a sister. Of course now that she's older, that's not as bad.

We are incredibly different, yet we still are close and I consider her a friend. And that has taken some effort, because we haven't lived in close proximity in over 14 years! First I went to college and came home on weekends and summer, of course. Then I transferred to a college further away and came home twice a month. Then I got married and lived 80 miles away.

When Cory decided to go to college, she chose the University of Southern Mississippi, which is on the other end of the state. She now works on campus and is engaged to be married. My baby sister married. That's a weird concept to me. I remember my parents waking me up at 3 a.m. to go to my grandparent's house because Mama was in labor. I was terribly excited about having a sister, but didn't see why she couldn't have waited until morning! My teacher gave me dimes (yes, DIMES!) to go use the payphone to call throughout the day to see if my sister was born. Only back then, we didn't know if I'd have a brother or a sister until she was born.

When she finally got to come home, it was like having a live doll to play with! And as she grew up, things didn't change much. I remember having to trick her into letting me braid her long hair every day. She didn't want it French braided, but if I called it something else, that was OK. And putting make-up on her was always fun too.

She might live several hours away, but we usually see eachother about once a month. And talk (IM) almost daily. I think we've become much closer over the past few years and I am so happy for that.