The Women in Our Lives

At school I run a Women's Studies Group and the first thing that we do is look at how women communicate with one another, how they communicate differently from men, and how they can be biggest supporter or biggest saboteur to one another.  We progress on to trust building activities for the group, guest speakers from different careers and vocations, etc., and this year our focus is on women around the globe and trying to help those less fortunate.  One of the girls is going to Kenya in December for a week and returning next year for six months to volunteer at a home for children who were orphaned because their parents died of AIDS. 

It is because of the strong and special women in my life and our open communication that I am able to be friends with other women; a rare thing sometimes.

This isn't the best photo (Mom was sick with cancer and I had been washing dishes, hence the odd hand pose), but this is Audrey on the left, Ruth in the middle, me on the right, and Mom last winter.

This is us back in 1979 or 1980 at my cousin's wedding.  (I've got the long hair.)

These are my girls.  Lauren will be 28 while I'm in China.  Farran will be with me in China.

I do have two older sisters.  Kathy was 16 years older than me and we spent years going to the grocery store together, trading babysitting, walking at 5 a.m., going to fairs, to the beach, etc., but then she had grandchildren and I started teaching....and our schedules didn't match up.  In 2004 I found her dying of a stroke on her living room floor.  I will never stop missing her.  She hated having her photograph taken, though.  My oldest sister June, 18 years older than me (I'm the middle sister), has the mental age of a young teenager and we love one another but we don't really connect.  Still, she is as responsible for shaping who I am as Kathy was.  Here is a picture of the two of them as children (with my first and second brothers):

Two weeks from today, I will meet another female destined to change my life!