It's the birthday of my sister Mary-Jo who is sixty. I always think I'm 12 or 13 years older than her but when I see she's sixty, it's starkly revealed that the difference is 14. I had just received my commemorative John F. Kennedy coin the day Mary-Jo came home from the hospital. My mother was in a bit of a bad mood that day. After giving birth to four boys, she had finally gotten her girl and the joy was slightly dented by the headline that day in the Boston Globe: "Kennedy Hurts Back on May 16."
"Why did they have to say May 16?" My mother wondered. She felt the paper had besmirched the sacred day of her daughter's birth. It was too late to stop the presses. The papers had been delivered all over the city. And it would be silly to send a nasty letter to the editor. After all, the president had injured his back, or reinjured it. It had originally been injured in the war. I think he had been planting a commemorative tree somewhere when the press caught him locked in a bent over position.
Kennedy's physician was a woman, which was quite forward looking on Kennedy's part. Dr. Janet Travell, among other treatments, prescribed a rocking chair to help with the president's back spasms. There was a run on rocking chairs in New England when that was revealed.
But back to Mary-Jo. As her oldest brother, I took her pre-school education in hand. I taught her to walk. I taught her to love and care for books, and I took her on instructive jaunts around the countryside. She turned out extremely well. She walks elegantly, her house is filled with interesting books, and right now she and her husband Sunny are jaunting in Key West. Say hi to Hem, MJ.
 |
Roseau River, last evening |
1 comment:
I have six younger siblings, the youngest by fourteen years. I, too, got to teach her some things, but I had to move out of the house to attend school well before I could finish my lessons...
Post a Comment