The Sisterhood

A very long time ago, there was a sisterhood of women that met and became friends through a direct sales cause of keeping women beautiful.

These sisters included Rita, Mili, Doris, Shirley, Mom and Me.  Rita owned a direct sales line of natural skin care and cosmetics.  Mili was the area director, Doris was her recruit who in turn brought in Shirley, Mom and Me to the fold.

We would hold meetings in Mom's yarn shop.  There were similarities of interest ranging from crocheting, knitting, mahjong, gambling, having fun and family get togethers.

Today I witnessed a miracle.  Today I lost my best friend Shirley to colon cancer.  She was 78 years old and died this morning around 8:30 a.m. or thereabouts.  The miracles of miracles is this.  At the same time this morning, Mili and Doris received the call about Rita's passing from a major stroke.  Although Rita, who was 90 years old, passed on January 18, when Mili received the call was the same time that Shirley passed.

It seems as though Rita was waiting for Shirley, and Mili, who I haven't seen in maybe 20 years and Doris are in town to help me to celebrate Shirley and Rita's life and to talk over the memories we had with one another.

Rather than being sad at the loss of my dearest friend, I was able to recall the good times we all had.  Doris treated me to a wonderful Japanese dinner which went from Unagi (eel) hand rolled sushi to Sea Bass and Jidori chicken with fried rice, to Passion Mango sorbet for dessert.  YUM!

After dinner, we met Mili and her daughter Tammy at the Black Jack table and I sat there chatting while Mili and Tammy played and we all chatted and caught up with our life stories for those lost 20 years.  While the dealers changed shifts 3 times, they enjoyed our stories ranging from gender sociology to the restaurant business, to kids and grand kid stories. 

Mili was always the ring leader, but at the age of 80....she is almost blind, suffering from Macular Degeneration.  Imagine Mili with this huge jeweler's magnifying gizmo that almost looks like a welder's mask, trying to play Black Jack.  Being the vain person that she still is....she just opted for having the dealer tell her what cards were on the table and counting it up for her.

It was quite hilarious to watch.  Mili who always over the years had some sort of sexual joke about her body parts was true to form tonight, believing that she had better live it up with whatever time she has left. She was down about $5,000.  WOW.

My conclusion.....Thank you God for sending Mili and Doris to be here with me.  Thank you for allowing Rita to wait for Shirley, who always admired her.  Now that is what I call Sisterhood.

To my best friend Shirley who has been my sister, at times my mother, my buffet eating buddy and Hanafuda card friend.  You showed me that no matter what bad things happened to my life, that compared to what you were facing, my troubles were so miniscule that I became embarrassed to even think about feeling down.  You brought so much laughter into my life.  You brought the "get up and go" spirit into my life.  We had fun.  We laughed, cried and sometimes we laughed so hard we cried and almost peed in our pants.  That was the kind of friendship we had. 

When we went through a period where what ever happened to one of us eventually happened to the other was scary.  You stated one day that we had to stop thinking like this and it stopped.  Your funny stories about your life made me laugh many times.  You were my very own comedy show.  Don't forget to say hello to my mom.  You promised!

I will miss you Ahjuma.....you are with your Jehovah now and someday we will meet again....even though our religious beliefs are different.  Now that you have crossed over....left me say this last thing to you since you can't disagree back.....I believe in the separation of church and hate!

That is my belief and I'm sticking to it!