"National Siblings Day"
I have two older sisters, one is 6 years older, another one is 4 years older. I do not remember we had a sibling fight at all as we grew up because of the age gap with
my older sister, and my other sister is a Down's syndrome. We had disagreements, but never turned into a fight.
Both of my sisters are pretty special and incredible people in my life, and
I always have a great respect to both of them !
Today, I would like to write about Yuki, my sister who has Down's Syndrome.
She is 4 years older than me, but her mental age has been younger than me for the
most of my life. So my role as a youngest sibling become a bit different than
other family structure. I am the youngest, but I am not the youngest.
Yuki and myself
I remember often I would protect her from teasing from others at school,
holding my arms wide open and telling other kids,
"Don't tease her! This is my sister you are talking to!"
I often carried her on my back when we went up the stairs coming back from
the school. Because she had (still has) a weak heart and the stairs made her
heart pump too much. It would be when I was in Grade 2.
I would run up the stairs and put my back pack down at the top of the stairs,
and come down to get her, and piggy back her and walked up the stairs.
It sounds very nice of me,,, but the reason that I wanted to carry her up the stairs
were that I wanted to go home and have snack as soon as possible. But my mom had
told me not to leave Yuki behind, so I had to wait or walk slowly for her. The only way to get home faster was to piggy back her...
Down's syndrome children might have some delay in physical and mental development,
but once they found their favourite things to do, they appear to be SUPER good at it.
My sister's favourite thing was "stitching". She created so many patchwork art,
wall hangings, baby blankets, Christmas ornaments.
This is one of the most famous creation by her.
Many of my relatives and friends owns one of these
Christmas Wreath made by Yuki.
This is another Christmas ornament. She made only one of this as it was
confusing for her to put triangles together.
This bear is something she made after our mom passed away and
she moved to the nursery home where she lives now.
The care takers at the nursery home quickly realized that she is good at
stitching, so they gave her more tasks and she created bags.
Now she doesn't do too much stitching as it requires
lots of preparations and finishing work for other people.
I meet her when I go back to Japan once every 2 years or so. That is my dilemma, I should be living close to her, but I already established my life in Canada.... What can I do when I am so far away ...
But I will be there when you need me to.
I love my sister Yuki.
5 comments:
What a heartwarming post, Mari. You must miss your sister so much. It's hard when they are far away, isn't it?
What a beautiful post Mari, thanks for sharing. Your sister Yuki is so sweet and incredibly talented! What a special connection you two have even though your so far apart. I wish for you to be able to travel more often to see your family. :)
>karenmoran and >Kandis,
Thank you for leaving your comments. Yes, sometime it's hard to live so far away, even though it was my decision to move to Canada.
We have a really good relationship, and so thankful for the phone line and Skype!
Thank you for sharing your heart Mari. It is a special kind of love that only a sibling of someone who has a mental disability can understand. You are sister, friend, mother, mentor, cheerleader, and student of your sister and all of her charms and challenges.
I really enjoyed reading about your sister Yuki! She has a creative spirit that you captured. It must be hard living so far from the sisters you love! Do you Skype with them?
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