Sister at Distance

It’s sad to lose your sister to distance; for a person who stays by you day and night, gets married and moves away and then all you are left with is a void. A void that no one else can fill, there are times when you want to share the tiniest of things with her and she’s not around.

The only thing that keeps you connected is Whatsapp and Facebook and Instagram. When through social media you are able to keep tabs on her, you know what’s happening in her life, although you want to be part of everything that happens in her life you realize that that’s never going to happen and you just have to distance yourself from her, because her priorities in life have changed, she’s got another family to take care of and your own urgencies can wait. You will continue to be a part of her life that has taken a cyclone turn and although you’re glad you’re not part of the whirlpool, you’re a sidelined spectator watching her from a distance.

Our connection now just remains limited to the mobile phones that we look to when we want to speak with each other. As much as I would like to raise this as an issue, I know deep down she struggling to end one day to operate the next day, with she being in demand within all her capacities all I can give her is some time to herself without complaining about  her not spending enough time with me. I’ve been through times when I’ve forgotten to comb my hair only to realize mid day that the thing that has been bothering me all day was the forgotten hair, I can therefore be the sister I am required to give her space.

I’ll just finish writing this and then sharing with her pictures of my clothes that I got done for eid. She’ll look at them and say “not bad!”, not the thing I really want to hear but in all these years I’ve got used to hearing her opinion of everything I ever do. I would prefer a full comment on the design and cuts and colors and everything for that matter but lack of time, with her kid on the verge of tumbling down she’ll send me a hurried reply, and since I’m so used to her voice in my head her half hearted and distracted ‘Not bad’ is also worthy of listening to. At least I know she’s still a part of my life and will continue to be involved with everything that happens in my life be it my clothes, or the food I’ve cooked today.

Glad I live in this century, where I can use my cell phone to send her pictures of every moment of life that I wish I’d be spending with her. She’s not physically here but she is my frequently contacted person on Google.

Sisters are such a blessing, she’s an extension of me, she may be away from me but really she’s just inside me all the time. I’ll just take this little opportunity to say I love you to her. She knows, I know, she’s heard it very often but….