Jul 1955 - present
2.) She was taking shorthand at school and the trip was written in shorthand
3.) Sheila was the organizer
4.) She had just finished her junior or senior year in school and Mom and Dad got a tape recorder. She had a tape of Nancy Sinatra's "These boots are made for walking"
We shared a room and being 5 years apart she always ended up taking care of me. We had an attic fan that was used for years in the summer before mom and dad put two window units in our home. One in the living room and the other in their bedroom. The open winoow and air flowing in was the perfect recipe to make me wet the bed for years. Sheila had to get up in the middle of the night and take me to the bathroom. If I had already wet the bed when she came to bed she would have to change the sheets or put a bath towel over the wet sheets. I remember making an imaginary line down the middle saying this was each others side and pjs were even allowed on each others side. Because I was afraid of the dark, Mother would make Sheila hold my and until I went to sleep. I never remember her being anything but kind about this. She really was my second mother. Actually she never stopped taking care of me and mine her whole life. She taught me to crochet and would undo my work and tell me her thoughts on all the medications we took. She wanted to make sure I was taking only the right ones. We shared recipes, clothes, ideas and just about anything and everything in life. She made me and other cookbooks so it would be easier to find our favorite recipes. She bought ingredientss and food that was new and interesting when she was her for a visit. Some of it would be give to others after she left just to make room again. She loved puttering around our house and taking short trips in the pickup to the walmart, the post office to mail logan chik-fil-a cards and other places that struck her fancy. She always told us that she loved being here in our clean house and doing whatever she wanted to do. I always
Actually she never stopped taking care of me and mine her whole life. She taught me to crochet and would undo my work and tell me her thoughts on all the medications we took. She wanted to make sure I was taking only the right ones. We shared recipes, clothes, ideas and just about anything and everything in life. She made me and other cookbooks so it would be easier to find our favorite recipes. She bought ingredientss and food that was new and interesting when she was her for a visit. Some of it would be give to others after she left just to make room again.
She loved puttering around our house and taking short trips in the pickup to the walmart, the post office to mail logan chik-fil-a cards and other places that struck her fancy. She always told us that she loved being here in our clean house and doing whatever she wanted to do. I always worried that we were leaving here alone with the animals to do nothing all day. She kept reassuring us that it was a vacation for her to be here doing that.
I always thought I would retire and we would spend days on end spending time with one another. God gave us such a special relationship and especially as grown women some time to really enjoy the things that we had that were alike; and the things that were different, which gave us so much more variety and interest together. We always said that we make one "whole" person when we were together.
My 11th or 12th birthday, I had a slumber party. Sheila made pink lemonade and got pretty straws for each glass. We had mint growing on the outside of the house. She picked mint leaves and put one on each straw and fixed them on the table for all of us. She took care of us all summer while Mom and Dad worked. She cleaned, cooked and made us cookies. She told Mom when she knew that I wanted to start shaving my legs. She tried to get me to fix my hair pretty when I thought (what she called "a weenie roll") looked good. When she left for college was the year I started 7th grade and I was so excited to get my "own room". She and Dad were in the car ready to leave and I watched from my bedroom window crying. A huge hole started for me that day for me. When she came home from college she always made our home whole again.