My Sister Susie

Many of you know that my big sister Susie was killed in an automobile accident on July 2. I blogged about her in July, and of course, can’t seem to stop thinking about her. On Labor Day weekend, when my daughter and son-in-law and Mr. Mary Kay were doing some home improvement type projects, I was telling Katie that for years we always used the long holiday to get some project done. And then I remembered Labor Day weekend 21 years ago. I was hugely pregnant with Andy, and was in a nesting frenzy to get his nursery completed. So we took ourselves over to Hancock Fabrics, bought a bunch of blue-and-white gingham, and whipped up cafe curtains, crib bumpers and a whoppy-jawed quilt. We painted the room and added a stencilled border of baseball-playing teddy bears. And then I beached myself on a sofa like a large, sweaty whale. Did I mention we didn’t have any air conditioning? Susie, as always, was enlisted to help out. Afterwards, she swore her curtain-making days were over. Little did she know! Part of my grieving process, I guess, has been writing about her. An essay I wrote about our shared cake plate will run in the November issue of Atlanta magazine. And another essay, which I called, If You Knew Susie Like I Knew Susie, ran in our hometown newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, a couple weeks ago. It’s going to run again sometime soon, in The Savannah News-Press too. I also read the essay on Georgia Public Broadcasting, last Friday. You can listen to a clip below. Warning–get out your hankies.