Unbroken Circle

30Apr08

At first I was going to write about how my sister is turning into a stalker.  But I changed my mind.  Maybe I’ll tell that story later, when you get to know us a little better and won’t notify the authorities.  Instead I want to talk about the bond between siblings.

In my family, that bond is deep, and I’ve been wondering why.  There have been times when we’ve hurt each other deeply, and yet as we get older the bond just seems to get stronger.  I mean, there are people who have stabbed one another over who gets the last pork chop, there are brothers and sisters who hate each other and won’t even let their names be spoken out loud.

I think in our case the bond was formed during our childhood, when sometimes it felt like we were all we had.   My mother had a nervous breakdown when one of her children died in her arms at the age of six months, while choking on the nipple of a bottle.  Things were never the same after that in our family, my mother became distant and my father had all he could do to hold things together.  So we turned to each other, my brother and two sisters and I, and the bond was forged.  I guess after what we went through during our childhood, nothing ever seemed too bad that we couldn’t get through it.

But what about other families?  How much do parents have to do with how close siblings are?  I would love to hear some stories.

Filed under: Uncategorized   |