May 20, 2008

The Duvalgal and her Baby Sister


This is my sister Barb and me laughing while celebrating at my 60th B-Day. We laugh a lot now. Several years ago we started a blog to tell our childhood stories. When you are younger, you are writing your own stories and are too busy to ask about the stories of your parents. By the time you do care, they are sometimes gone, so we decided to write a blog together for our children. Somehow we lost our blog out there in blogger space but today I found a posting I intended for her B-Day! She was going to be called the Duvalgal, named after the street we grew up on, I of course was the baby sister.

The Duvalgal always said she was the mistake, and our parents had me 3 yrs. later to keep her company. I wondered about that, she said it often enough, how could I forget! But it didn't bother me so much, because "company" sounded a lot better than "mistake" And I always thought she was a little whiny about it, but being a middle child, it comes with the territory. Of course Dad vehemently denied it, with a little too much passion I thought. "There were no "mistakes in our family" he'd say, that alone was a hilarious statement. Mom was noticeably silent during these "mistake" conversations.

Before Duvagal made her entrance, our parents had the "perfect family" or "a rich man's family" so they would say.... a girl, and a boy named after dad. It must have been a transition for the family of 4 to add a baby after 8 years. If Duvalgal was a truly a "mistake " (and who could believe any child is a mistake regardless of planning) it was long forgotten when she entered the world on our older sister's 12th birthday. Blond, blue-eyed like Dad and her birthday counterpart. She was beautiful and delighted everyone. I wasn't there but I am sure she was the treasure of all their hearts. As a toddler she had blond ringlets, much like Shirley Temple, the favorite child star of the 40's.

My sister's early days were days when war raged in Europe and the South Pacific. Our father didn't go to war with Germany or Japan, he was too old at 40, had one eye and 3 children. He did have some sort of civilian volunteer job in the neighborhood during the mandatory blackouts, (preparation in case of attack)

The sad part about being the youngest with older parents....there is no one left to tell you the answers to your many questions....all who would remember or would have enjoyed them carried the answers to their graves. Was Duvalgal a mistake? No child is a mistake, especially this one! Duvalgal would grow to be strong, charismatic, smart, ever learning, fun and loved by everyone. And best of all, she would be "my big sister and best friend". Happy Birthday Barb!!