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26. My Brothers and My Sister
We were two little girls aged 10 and 7 when our family increased by two little boys aged 9 and 5 who quickly became our brothers. Our father and their mother married and we had an instant family along the lines of the Brady Bunch but we didn’t have a maid. That was me…
My sister and I both live on the outskirts of Brisbane — I’m on the northern outskirts and she’s on the southern. My youngest brother lives and works in Hervey Bay and the brother who’s just slightly younger than I am is in an aged care facility in Brisbane suffering from dementia.
My sister is currently travelling around Australia with her husband in their caravan. She’s been fighting cancer for the past 11 years. God, that’s an awful insidious disease. She’s had so much chemotherapy, radiation and operations, but she always comes up smiling. Every time I ask her how she is she answers, “good, good, good”. I know damn well she’s not good but she’s such a trouper she won’t talk about the pain she’s in.
Me, on the other hand, will tell you in detail all about the tooth I had removed this afternoon. Calm down! I’m not going to, but I really want to.
I talk/text my sister often, talk to my youngest brother rarely but when I do it’s for hours, and my other brother who’s in care used to call me a lot but he hasn’t called me once since he’s been in care. I…
