Tribute

I have two daughters, born three years apart. Today is the anniversary of Julia's birth, and I wanted to write about her but have struggled to find words to describe her personality and character. My younger daughter came to the rescue without even knowing of my struggle. Early this morning I receive a touching tribute from Anne Marie about her beloved sister Julia. With Anne Marie's permission, I am posting the entire tribute.

A tribute to my beautiful sister on her birthday.

I was lucky enough to have the best older sister there ever was. She always watched over me and took care of me. When we were little, and she knew how to read, but I didn’t yet, she would read to me from her Raggedy Ann and Andy books. Sometimes she would tuck me into bed at night, and she would bounce me up and down on the mattress, just to hear my laugh. She liked to build snowmen in the back yard, facing my window with a big smile on its face. I never heard her complain about having to take me with her when she would go places with her friends. I remember fondly going with her to Lora Reynolds house. I remember walking with Julia and her friends over to Odegaard’s Drug Store to buy nail polish and snacks, then we walked over to Lion’s Park to have a picnic and paint our nails. When Christmas came, and we would have our annual “Christmas Pageant” for our parents, Julia always let me be Mary while she played Joseph. She taught me how to build forts in the living room out of furniture and blankets. We put on circuses in the back yard with the neighborhood kids. We would roam the wild areas around our grandparents house in the summer. I remember going to find the natural spring in the woods above their house, and I was amazed at how she could find it when I was so lost. We went tobogganing together down the steep road at Al Spencer’s cabin. We would “deliver” our Valentines’ chocolate boxes to each other’s rooms. My best memories of childhood always include her.

As we grew older, I was always amazed by her talents and her intelligent mind. She still let me go everywhere with her. I sort of became the band mascot as she took me with her to all of the football games and basketball games as she played in the band. She always included me with her friends when they would hang out places – going to Rax after football games for chocolate chip shakes, going bowling, driving around town. We were as close as any sisters could be, and I looked up to her (both figuratively and literally since she was 6 inches taller than me!). She left for college and we wrote letters almost weekly. Then, when I was in college, my greatest joy of the entire year was going to Provo to spend Thanksgiving with her. While I slept in Thanksgiving morning, she woke up early and cooked us a feast! Then, we watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon while we ate.

We nursed each other through broken hearts and laughed together through the fun times. I watched her with a bitter-sweet heart while I fell in love and got married, and she struggled to find the man she was meant to be with. I celebrated with her the joy of falling in love with Brent and was thrilled when he took her on her dream honeymoon – to Paris. I suffered through the sorrow of the loss of her friendship during my first marriage when my (then) husband segregated me from the people I loved most, but then I was overjoyed to hear her say that she had her sister back when that relationship ended.

When she got sick, I worried and prayed and watched with amazement how she kept going through it all. She found strength in her friends, her quilts and her church callings, but most of all in teaching her students who she loved so dearly. Her will to go on will always be an example to me. I will forever feel privileged for the opportunity I had to hold her hand as she passed from the pain of this life into the glory of the next.

But even after she was gone from this world, the watching over me and taking care of me continued. She guided me to my beloved Will. She showed me what an incredible man he is underneath that tough exterior. She even watched over him and helped him through times when he needed a little strength and encouragement. Then, when she’d finally convinced me that he was the man I was meant to be with, she laughed at me because I was marrying a blonde! I don’t feel her presence as often now that I’m married and on the path that I need to be on, but I know she watches over me and my little family. Tonight (and every night for the rest of my life) we will celebrate the day of her birth. The day that such a beautiful angel was allowed to touch all of our lives. I will forever feel gratitude for her love and concern for me, her lucky little sister.