Tribute to My Sister

Tomorrow is the big day. My baby sister is getting married. In honour of her big day, I'm writing a tribute to my sister.

When my parents told me that I would be having a baby brother or sister, I prayed every day for God to send me a sister. Since I already had a brother, I really wanted a sister. I thought my parents felt the same way, but when I asked, they said that either one was okay with them. However, I think its no secret that my parents wanted a daughter.

I was 9 years old and in the 2nd grade when I was excused from class to go to the principal's office to receive a phone call from my dad that mom was taken to the hospital because she was about to give birth. My grandmother was due to arrive in a week, but the joke in our family is that my sister wanted to beat her. On May 14, 1981, my sister was born at the base hospital on Hill AFB, Utah. My parents named her Melissa, which means "little Honeybee", which was appropriate since Utah is known as the "beehive state." Unlike her two brothers, she also had a middle name (Mae, after our grandmother's middle name). Had she been born a boy, the name would have Nathaniel Jackson. I think this is significant, because when I met one of my best friends in 1994, Nathan, I felt on the day we met that he was the brother I had always wanted. I consider him to be my spiritual brother in the eternal realm.

My dad took my brother and I to the hospital to meet our sister. I was so excited. When we got to view her through the window, I was disappointed. She was asleep. I really thought at the time that she would be just as excited meeting her brothers as we were meeting her. But she was sleeping. Her official baby photo is adorably cute. In fact, I thought she was the cutest baby, ever. My parents would take evening walks in our neighbourhood on Hill AFB and we would meet other couples with babies. I remember thinking that all the other babies we saw were not as cute as my little sister.

It was fun to watch her go through the milestones...learning to crawl, learning to walk, talking, etc. We had a cousin a year older than her and when her family visited us in Utah (they lived in Tucson, Arizona), they claimed that their daughter taught Missy how to walk (not true!). When we moved to Bellevue, Nebraska, there was an odd looking building (it looked like a golf ball) and my sister would shout excitedly, "ball! ball!" It was fun watching her learn language. There were some things about her that impressed us, such as the way she squinted her eyes in the cutest way. We called it "sweet eyes" and every time we asked her to see it (before she could talk), she would do that thing with her eyes. We couldn't believe how smart she was. As a toddler, she coined a phrase that my dad even used in a sermon. It was called "God manners." At our church congregation in Bellevue, there was another girl her age named Linda Gail. They were a study in opposites. My dad said that Linda Gail was "rough but not tough" and that our sister was "tough but not rough."

She was just a little girl when we lived in Germany, starting Kindergarten there. I don't know how much she remembers, but when fights with our brother Chris got so intense and crazy, I acted as her keeper and protected her from his rages. I once took her to the PX to buy some things, but she acted wild and embarrassed me. I never took her anywhere again. Its pretty funny in retrospect.

She was 10 when I went off to basic training. When I lived in Italy without coming home for three years, I didn't think of the impact it would have on my sister. My mom would tell me that my sister really missed me. She would write letters complaining about our brother, which always made me laugh. I was the dutiful brother, the only one to attend both her high school and college graduations. However, it is fortunate that all of us will be at her wedding, along with other family members.




My sister has been through a lot since adolescence, so I am very happy to participate in this joyous occasion with her and the rest of our family. May their wedding be beautiful and inspiring, and one of the happiest days of their lives. Here's to a long and fruitful marriage.

With her fiance Dave at the Vortex in Little Five Points, August 2008.

Posing with my sister in October 1994 when I returned home after a three year absence being stationed in Italy. She was in elementary school when I left home, a teenager when I returned.

Posing with my sister in October 1994. She wore hippy style clothing, but it was just a phase. She was never really a hippy.

One of my favourite photos of us. We were in Williamsburg, Virginia in December 1995. My sister and I, what a pair.