The Family Gets Smaller Again

My eldest sister Virginia died yesterday at the age of 80. She and my eldest brother were both teenagers when I was born so they were 'adults' for as long as I can remember. As children we (my other brother and younger sister) played with their children. In the photo above she was about 20 years old. She was musically inclined and tried to teach me to play the piano when I was about 8 but I wasn't much interested and never did learn though I've always enjoyed hearing others play. In the background near the right edge of the photo you can see our dog Sambo. He was named after the main character in a children's book (Little Black Sambo) that I'm sure would be politically incorrect these days.


I confess that I never had the same relationship with Ginny that I had with my oldest brother Bruce. It's probably a gender thing. Bruce did all sorts of things that I admired, he was a fireman then a truckdriver. He waterskied, flew planes, and SCUBA dived. Ginny was a mother, like my mother, someone caring but not exciting to a young boy. As I got older the family moved different places and the miles between us added to the gender distance. I'm sure I didn't appreciate her as much as she deserved.