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 I have a friend that lives two blocks from her sister, 3 blocks from her mother, 4 blocks from her best friend and 6 blocks from their church. They talk on the phone at least once a day, they know what to pick up at the grocery store without asking each other. They stick a Hershey bar on the drivers side seat of the car because you know their every move.

So many families now are disconnected. My mother in law did not speak to her sister for 25 years until 1 year before she died. They lived 5 miles apart, it was over an unkind word spoken in haste and anger. Why do we hold a grudge against the people we love? Do we want to hurt the people we love the most?

When Nan was in her 60's she lived 6 months in Florida and 6 months in New York. She worked for a wealthy couple that traveled and she traveled with them as their nurse. One of my sisters wanted Nan to come home for the birthday of her daughter. Nan was committed to filling shifts of alternate nurses for the couple, at the last minute Nan did not make it to the birthday party.

My sister did not speak to her for 7 years. It seems impossible you can hurt someone over and over again but yet it happens every day. They finally made amends, they were happy again until one day Nan did some thing that upset this same sister. She did not speak to Nan for 3 more years. I did not understand the entire episodes because I lived 3,000 away and did not know the entire story. One sister told me one thing and another sister told me their version.

Five years before Nan passed this sister took over her medical and financial responsibilities. It was a beautiful and mutual relationship. I was actually jealous because I only saw my mother 8 times a year for a few days and my sister saw her every day. I wanted this relationship with my mother and I never had it because I moved away when I was 22 and never moved back to my home town. I have three sisters who never left their high school friends. They still go on vacation, go to lunch, have picnics, travel overseas, and chat almost every day with these classmates.

We reach out and touch people on FaceTime and Zoom. We laugh, sing Happy Birthday and say Good Night when ever we have the urge. We listen to their baseball stories, how they did on the soccer field, how their piano recital went, did they get the lead role in the play. There are so many happy things to say and sometimes we never say them. We are waiting for the next time we are together, the next time it will be more convenient. 

Be Happy Today!