Sandy Supposes....

LAURIE

         PROMPT: Creation Saturday! Talk yourself out of the biggest letdown you've ever felt.

          Ah, emotional confessional? My biggest letdown was a very long, drawn-out affair. My younger sister, Laurie, faded away from an advanced form of Multiple Sclerosis. It was an unrelenting, ugly disease that stripped her of her mobility, her bodily functions, her dignity, and her personality. She became a gaunt, frail shell of her former self. As the big sister, I felt helpless. I could not spare Laurie.

          In the beginning, we shared humour. Laurie rarely referred to her thief as M.S.; she preferred to name it ' pissitis'. We lamented that neither one of us had ever been graceful, so being 'clumsier' wasn't too bad. When she could no longer dress herself, she tried to ease her loss by saying now she didn't have to dress to impress.

         Her deterioration and eventual death seemed agonizingly slow, yet it was also viciously rapid. The supposed prime of her life slipped away in a nursing home. In the end, Laurie died just one month shy of her 50th birthday. Had she been aware of this approaching milestone? She'd once panicked at the looming big 3-0!

          I attempt to deal with the void in my life by writing. Laurie was too real. too alive, too vivid to be forgotten. I have three 'bits' with my sister as the star in my portfolio. These are the links:

LAURIE STORIES  (13+) Remembering my irrepressible and vivacious little sister. #2032064 by SandraLynn

LAURIE  (13+) Some sister thoughts to mark the one-year anniversary of Laurie's death. #1993363 by SandraLynn

Pissed  (18+) My sister, Laurie, endured M.S. for too many years. I imagine this was her perception. #1991305 by SandraLynn