SIBLING SOJOURN

Isn't it funny how in large families, older siblings tend to adopt or form a bond with one of the younger ones? Well, that's how it is for my and my oldest brother. Though we were born fifteen years apart, we are the closest. He's the one that nicknamed me Lil Olde Baby Sis, and I am proud that he did.

This is us....................
After the death of our mother, I, as the Baby Sis, was feeling nostalgic and wanted to see my mom's only surviving siblings, four sisters who still lived in Oklahoma. I had only met them once when I was a baby because, well, I am black. My mother is a Native American who married a black man, and her sisters were all passing for white. Even their husbands didn't know their true heritage. But the coast was clear for my visit, because they'd outlived each of their husbands.

This is a picture of my mom and some of her sisters. Mama is the cute on standing on the far left.


My Big Brother agreed to accompany me on this journey, and before we knew it other brothers and sisters were on board. It had become The Sibling Sojourn, Number 80 on my Bucket List.

We visited one 92-year old aunt in an nursing home, and two others in failing health, ages 75 and 80, and one was as spry as a spring roll, though she was 85. The all lived within a few blocks of each other. Ahhh, don't you miss the old days when families lived in the same neighborhood their whole life?

The highlight of our trip was visiting the Negro cemetery where some of our father's ancestors were purportedly buried. I should not have been surprised by the unkempt nature of the graveyard, but I was. Some of the graves were marked with a mere stick, others with just a rock, no name visible anymore. Oklahoma is still the south.

We spent the better part of a week with the aunts, and it was a good thing because that was the last time any of us saw them alive. I am glad that I took the time to go on The Sibling Sojourn.