It's time to name my sister.....

Author's Note:   A full 7 weeks after this was published, an anonymous fan came up with the perfect name for this sister and it is....... Wilson !   If you consider the "Home Improvement" Wilson, who always offered the main protaganist sage advice, but always from behind the scenes and taking not credit, it fits her to a tee.  If you consider the Wilson voleyball that was Tom Hank's confidante on the island in Castaway, well that makes sense too, she is the perfect listener, and she keeps us all sane while listenign to us blather on.  Welcome to the family, Sister Wilson.

Sister Wilson

     I established the pattern of nicknaming my siblings in my blog early on, with a blog that I penned called "They call my brother Aquaman".  A while after that I did a two part series nicknaming all of them, but I cheated my youngest sister out of a name and assigned her a non-nickname, so in this week's blog, I try and correct that travesty.  

     I'd like you all to participate in this one, as clearly I ran out of creativity before I got to name my last sister in this blog a few years ago.  If you haven't read the blogs that I wrote  in which I nicknamed each and every member of my family, you would do well to look at these first (It's time you met the family - Part 1) and (It's time you met the family - Part 2).  I took a long time to create each nickname for my siblings and some I think are spot on, and some I'm just ok with, but couldn't

My 2 younger siblings

come up with a better one.  When I got to my last sister, who happens to be the youngest in the family, I couldn't find the right moniker for her, so I simply bookmarked the page and named her  She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named.   It was outright laziness and a lack of respect for my own established rules, but hey if Kirk can set his own rules for the Kobayashi Maru, I guess I can for this blog too.  I imagine her reading the blog every week and wondering when I would bestow upon her a more fitting name, but in reality she had far better things to do and it's not like her to dote upon herself so I am deluding myself if I think this has bothered her, but nonetheless, it is now time to truly name my sister.  If you are going to help, you are going to have to know a little about her....

     She was born 7 years after I was and with my sister, Teary in between us, she was never a threat to take attention away from me that Teary was.  This helped to facilitate a better relationship between us from the get-go, and I still consider her one of my closest siblings (She, in fact, is the sibling who lives closest to me, although several in-laws

What Merry Go Rounds used to look like

have almost completely surrounded me now).  When referring to her, I always call her the "Baby of the Family", but others call me the "Baby Boy" and her the "Baby Girl".  My earliest memories of her were of a happy-go-lucky baby who rarely cried or complained as she grew older, but I honestly don't know if those memories are real, or have been colored by my view and respect for her now.  I'll let my family members weigh in on that.  Her early childhood will always be defined for me by that one particular incident at Sonnenberg Park.  You can read the long version of it in "The Family-Part 2" referenced above, but the cliff notes version has her falling face first off a Merry-Go-Round, coming up bruised and bleeding, and yet never shedding a tear.  She was tough.  She has always been a peacemaker in the family of sorts, I love to talk to her, because she lets me do all the talking.  For years, I suspect, she kept her own opinions quelled inside of her and became the

Circa 1985 maybe, S-W-S-N-B-N'd on bottom left

family confidante for a lot of my siblings.  I'm sure I used her during those years and felt good dumping some emotional baggage or using her silence to justify some action or inaction that I probably knew was wrong, but I'm glad to say that our relationship has evolved now, and she's more apt to stop me, mid-sentence, during some outlandish story, and say, "Really? That's the way you think (insert Your Mother or God here) would want you to act?"  I would not recommend her trying out for the position of my conscience (although she is approximately the height of Jiminy Cricket), but I'm sure that there are many times that I've come around to make a good decision after conferring with her.  My wife and I both consider her one of our best friends and we joke that we could never divorce because neither one of us would concede giving up her close friendship or counsel.  Yes, she's that good, picture Solomon with less splitting babies in half. 

     To talk about this sister and not mention her strong Catholic faith would not do her justice.  Although she is the youngest member of our family, if I ever want to know how my Mother would have felt on a particular

Jesus has no hands but ours

issue of faith, I only have to seek out this sister's opinion, and it likely would match my Mom's.  She has some great faith based stories about growing up in our large Catholic household. One of my favorites is when she brought home a broken statue of Jesus from a garage or yard sale. The statue had suffered some wear and had lost both hands and when this sister pointed it out to my Mother, my Mother simply replied that Jesus didn't need hands on earth because she was Jesus's hands on earth.  It's a lesson that she took to heart and she has lived this adage spoken by a clever mother for as long as I have known her.  She attends Mass each week (albeit a little late some weeks) and she had volunteered on both the Parrish Council and in the Youth Group.  There are those that are more pious than you that make you feel bad about your own commitment to your faith, but that's never been the case with me and this previously pigeon-toed sister.  Admittedly she does inspire me to think more about my faith, but never in a judgemental way, and that is a clear gift from God.  I should probably stop discussing this topic as my polling shows that I lose blog readers if I tarry too long on this topic, so just to keep interest, I'll randomly thrown the word BACON in here to make them happy (Try Bostrom Farms local, all natural, farm-raised bacon, it's delicious).  Personally I could probably do with a little less bacon and a little more Jesus in my life, but that's not the case for my sister.

     I hope I've started to give you an idea of this sister's strengths, gifts and personality, but I'll throw a few more in here to make sure you know her well enough to participate in the naming process.  Shes' a stay at home Mom, who you can never catch at home.  She volunteers for Carenet, a faith based pregnancy caring

With her family

center located in Cdga.  She is married to her college sweetheart and they set a powerful example for couples on how to continue to work on building a stronger marriage perpetually.  Of course she is involved with the local Parent-Teacher group in school and more recently Scouts (She says I talked her into that, but I was just being Jesus's hands on earth by recognizing she would be a great asset to the committee).  She keeps a great circle of close friends and interacts with them often and spontaneously.  She and her family keep physically active by swimming, jogging, biking and hiking, I get tired just hearing about their adventures sometimes.  She loves food and her and her husband have raised kids that not only can cook but will experiment with different cuisines.  She limits her kid's computer and TV time, although the second is hardly necessary, as they only get 2 channels.  I'll close by talking about her failings, before you all make her out to be a Saint.  Her character flaws include both humility and thrift (Wait, those aren't flaws? Darn it.).  In a nutshell, there is a reason that in a family poll she'll run a clear first or second for everyone's favorite sibling. 

     Now to the naming part.  Please suggest a name for this sibling, whether you know her personally or not.  You can put it in the comment section here or on my Facebook page and I'll compile them.  I'll be the final decider on what name to assign to her, but your input is invaluable, if I haven't come up with it in 2 years, well you can finish that thought.  Please fire away......