A few days ago, I found out that my sister was approved to be a living liver donor. I am still a bit overwhelmed with the emotion of all of this and the magnitude of what this means. I think to sum up how I am feeling, I think the only proper word is one coined by my daughter…. I am scarcited (50 percent scared – 50 percent excited).
Rather than speak about the obvious things (why she is doing it, what the procedure entails, recouperation time, etc), I think I would rather focus this a little more about the relationship we have with each other.
Jessi is the youngest of my three siblings – I am the oldest. There is a 6 year span between us.
For about 12 years, Jessi worked with me for my in-laws business. She started by watching our kids, and over the years became an indispensable part of the company. Between Jessi and I, we redesigned many of the products the company made. As good of a designer as I am, Jessi is better. (But maybe we could keep that between you and I, we don’t need to let it go to her head).
In addition, she and I traveled to many trade shows to market our products. After thousands of miles traveled, upgraded flights and rooms, and downgraded meals, we have quite the series of stories.
Here are a few: The time in San Francisco when we asked the concierge where to eat (we were looking for a take-out place) and he sent us to a fancy romantic restaurant. The time where went out for sushi and right before ordering I said “maybe we should just get one roll each to make sure it is good”. Boy was that a good call. We saw the Lion King, Love and Penn and Teller in Vegas.
One time she woke me up and said, aren’t we supposed to leave for the airport in 10 minutes? I raced to get ready and ran out the door. That was the time I took a shower in the American Airlines lounge in Dallas.
Then time that we drove from Nashville to Cincinnati and narrowly missed getting killed by a semi truck that was driving too fast on wet roads (I can still remember things happening in slow motion on that one). Sometime you will have to ask one of us about these (and other stories)…. they are quite entertaining.
We shared many hotel rooms, and learned that an ironing board with a towel on it makes a great table to eat takeout food on. The great thing about traveling with your sister, is you always have someone with you that you can share the inside joke with and at the same time doesn’t get offended when you need to not talk all night after a busy day.
But despite all of these things, she and I will be able to share a new story. My dad and his brothers always say that there is nothing closer than brothers. I suppose from a genetic perspective, when you exclude twins, this is true.
But soon I will be able to counter that notion and say:” there is nothing closer than siblings, especially when they share an organ.”
