three's company

I wish I could pinpoint the source.  I wish I could find what planted the seed, because if I could, I'd be sure to take note of it so that I would locate it again and again.  Tonight, out of nowhere, I recalled a moment in time that was so precious to me, I was transported right back to that place and eventually began to laugh out loud, to just myself.  

I have two sisters, which means I have two golden gifts in my life.  They are older then me and certainly wiser.  In our youth I drove them nuts with frustration and in our adulthood I've driven them to tears of laughter.  I don't why they bring out the best in me, but they do.  

On a sad night, one of the saddest we'll ever know, we found ourselves once again bunking in one room together.  It was on the eve of our very dear uncle's funeral.  We'd gone home to New Jersey to simultaneously mourn him and celebrate him.  He was incredible and that is an understatement.  

We girls returned to our mother's home in the beautiful woods near a perfect lake in Pennsylvania.  Up in her barn loft guest house, we went to bed that night.  We were spent emotionally, but fed spiritually by the closeness we innately had with one another.   As a child at bedtime I'd bother them no end with my restlessness in sleep and an odd habit I had of kicking my leg while I slept on my stomach, over and over again.  That night I drove then crazy at bedtime in a totally different way; with humor.  

There aren't many people I can be utterly myself with, but with those sisters of mine, I can be not only myself, but every character conceivable.   I think it was the influence from the then popular Austin Powers film series that inspired me to chatter on with a British accent, that and a recent favor I'd done for another uncle of ours.  Some people find my voice somewhat soothing and because of that, an uncle had asked that I record all the voicemail options for his company's phone directory.  Between the Austin Powers British accent I'd been bagging on and the phone directory chore fresh in my mind, I'd begun to dazzle and demolish my sisters to hysterics with this odd banter that became addictive the more I went with it.

In deeply accented English I spurted out phone directory options like, "If you suffer from low self esteem, press zero".  "If you are a pedophile, dial any number from 11 and under".  "If you are Doctor Evil, dial one million".  "If you're a golfer, dial FOUR!".  "If kinky sex is your bag baby, press 69".  "If you suffer from multiple personality disorder, press 2, 3, 4 or 5".  If you're possessed by the devil baby, press 666".  And so it went, until I was way out of control, absolutely rude, beyond the limit and over the top.  I'd stop for a while and we'd approach sleep.  The silence would get me thinking and out would pop another wise crack followed by belly laughs and pleas to stop.  Eventually we all fell asleep, but we woke laughing and in the morning, we sat on my mother's porch with tea and coffee and a repeat performance.  My uncle would have loved us laughing together.  He loved family so much and we adored him for all he brought to us always, even after he was gone, he brought us together. 

Tonight I go to sleep grateful for my uncle Jack, my sisters, and for Austin Powers.  

YEAH Baby!  (insert British accent here)