OK Flashback Friday......I know I am late..........

Ok I am bad with this but in talking to my niece last night I don't remember a whole lot of specifics about my childhood. I mean I can recall when someone is talking about an incident, but I can not pull up the whole story in my memory. So I figured I would blog about the one person in my life that I learned a lot from. Now if you feel sadness from this blogg I am sorry. And if I ramble on Please Forgive Me, but I have not really talked about my sister with anyone except my niece since she has passed away. SO Here Goes............... This is about My Sister, Her name is Ann. Early on in life, I was probably 5 yrs old I remember Ann helping me clean my room so I wouldn't get in trouble from my mom. She would show me, and help me put things away and in their places so it looked nice. I remember her always being around. My Niece says she was Miss Betty Crocker homemaker. She was always showing us that things could be done. Cooking, baking, just in general being there. (I don't remember my mom doing that. I mean she did but I was always told to get out of the kitchen. Hardly ever allowed to watch.) the best times for my sister was when she was baking cookies. Chocolate Chip at that............... LOL Yes they are my MAJOR WEAKNESS!!!!! I Loved (ok still LOVE) to eat the cookie dough from the bowl. I remember disappearing into the kitchen when she was baking a batch. Now the make up of the house I grew up in. The living room was on the other side of the wall from the kitchen. So when I would disappear into the kitchen, Ann would ask me what I was doing after a couple of minutes. And ALWAYS I would try to play it off by telling her I was getting a drink or something else. But invariably I had a mouthful of cookie dough. "Sherri GET OUT of the cookie dough and OUT of the kitchen." she would tell me. Then back I would go again after the next batch was in. I would either be stealing cookie dough, or a nice hot cookie. I always wondered how she had any cookies left for anyone else after I had made my trips to the kitchen. When I was 7 yrs Old, I remember I was sick and my mom came in my room first thing in the morning and told me I had a Birthday Present. June 1, is the day if you wanted to know). I was excited, and asked for it. She said it was still at the hospital, that Ann had had her baby. I was disappointed, I told her I didn't want that. LOL Who wants a niece on their birthday as a kid. LOL That was the best gift Ann could have given me. I Love My niece, her name is Melissa. Later I remember going on Vacation with my family and stopping at my sisters place in TX. That was cool, until night time. I Remember when the lights were off, looking at the floor and telling my niece the floor was moving. We turned back on the lights and it was HUGE cockroaches. EWWWWW.......... They seemed like the size of my hand, I doubt it though. Later when I was 13 I got to go visit her for a summer, well 3 weeks. I had a blast. There I saw her in action. Keeping up a house and cooking and caring for her kids. Her ex-husband was a jerk, I thought. (Well he still is, but that is a totally different subject). He was in the Armed Forces and I remember her cooking all afternoon so dinner would be ready when he came home. She would serve him first. That is the right thing to do. But he would be totally finished eating before she could get the next person served. I thought that was wrong even then, I asked her about it, but she never said a word, if I recall correctly she said don't worry about it. Now she had 3 kids, My niece Melissa (born on my birthday), my nephew Willie, and my niece Shana. A few years later she left him and came to live back home with my mom & I. That was cool, I liked it when she was around. I came home from school one day and my nephew Willie was gone and my sister was upset and beat up a little (she had a tear in her ear lobe and, cracked ribs and a lump behind her ear; she was always complaining that it hurt). Her ex-husband had come over taken him from her (of course there was a BIG struggle) and left. Now they weren't divorced yet. I remember there were times when she would have to go back to Texas to go to court about this matter. She never stopped fighting to get him (Willie) back. After a while I guess she had exhausted the court system but she had said that the court had awarded Willie to his father. YUCK that was sucky. A couple of years later I remember her being in the hospital and not knowing if she was going to make it. I found out she had Thyroid Cancer. That lump behind her ear that she had been complaining about was cancerous previous to the fight with her ex-husband. She had to have her Thyroids removed. A year or so after that she had surgery again, the cancer had spread to her chest but the Dr's couldn't do the whole surgery at one time. She had to recover from the Thyroid Surgery before they could remove the rest of the cancer. That one really scared me. I REALLY didn't think she was going to make it. She did though. We had the getting High incident and all and just other memories of her come back. Through out the years I remember always keeping in touch and visiting. We always talked about how the cancer was doing and how she was feeling. She had gone into remission for a LONG time. One day she told me the Dr's found a spot of cancer, and SWORE me to secrecy. She began telling the family through out the year. I remember she was really weak at thanksgiving. She was very uncomfortable that day. She didn't make it to Christmas. She died of complications about 2 weeks before. We had her Home Going service, I found out my brother led her to the Lord before she died. And then the burial, she was cremated and laid to rest in a Pig Cookie Jar. She REALLY LOVED Pigs. She is buried in the same plot as my grandpa and my mother. Well now that I have rambled on, and lost of few of you at times. I am sorry. I am finally finished. And yes many a tissue lost its life to the writing of this blog. Thanks for listening to me ramble. Sherri G Ok I finally found the pics of my sister. Been looking all day. Also been Looking RIGHT at them...................DUH They are not in any particuar order or year so Here goes..........

Ann, my 2 neices and Her husband

Not sure what year this is. I would assume she is about 6 or 7 yrs old

Ann, Me & Sister Cathy This was before my braces so it has to be around my 3rd grade. Which would be around 1973.

Ann & my Great Nephew.

I think he is about 6 months, so around December 1993

Senior Portriat 1971

December 1992, the Christmas before my mom died.

This is from left to right;

Brother George, Sister Cathy, My Mom, Me, & Sister Ann

Sept. 6, 1955; Cathy 33 mos, Ann 23 mos

George, Ann, & Cathy; not sure about the year

Ann at my mom's house. By the hair cut I would say Late 70's