My Sister's Birthday

It's February 20, my sister Peg's birthday. Two years older than me, and I just turned 56, so we're not kids anymore. But I still wanted to take a moment to say that when we used to be kids she was quite an influence. She was the third of six; I was the fourth. Coming right after her I'm sure there was some resentment==though she probably didn't know it--for me. I mean, she went from being the baby to being the sister who had to help with the new baby by the time she could talk. She'd sometimes take out that resentment by biting me on the head. She didn't just bite, though. She sort of collected scalp between her fingers and squeezed it so that she could get a really good bite going. Man, I'll never forget those. On the other hand, she was an immense talent. By the time she was ten and my other older sister, Pat, was 12, they had the best baton troop in Whitestone. They were good enough that they were invited to march in all the local parades and I think they were invited to the New York City St. Paddy's Day Parade a couple of times as well. That's saying something. And both individually and as a team Peg and Pat seemed to win baton championships at will.
And by the time she was in high school our mom had become a teacher so Peg picked up the slack and cooked for all of us several times a week. And she was a great cook.
When she finished high school she went to work at a major law firm and in no time was running the office. Her typing skills were brilliant: I think she did a legitimate 135 words a minute on the old IBM electric--that's a no-mistake 135 words per minute. She was also gorgeous: I once visited the office to find one of her bosses literally running around his desk trying to catch her to give her a lecherous hug--not really a criminal offence in those pre-women's rights days. No problem: Peg simply outran him till he ran out of steam and gave up.
She married her high school sweetheart, George Lehman and they raised three beautiful girls: Jennifer, Christine and Allison, all of whom are now married themselves with two of them, Jen and Chris, having kids of their own.
So what I'm getting at is this: my sister Peg helped make me tough, taught me about hard work, cooked for me, helped show me how to be a good dad by being such a good mom, and she's even lent me money when the house was going to be taken out from under us.
So thanks, Peg. I love you and I'm glad you're my sister.
Pete