Framed: The Barefoot Butterfly Girls

When we visited my parents yesterday, my cousin Susie gifted me a photo frame with butterflies on it. She said it was for a photo of my big sister Barb, who passed away on the hottest day of summer in 2019. And I knew instantly just which picture should go in it!

My big sister Barb, the oldest of us six kids, was a hero to our family. She was made of tough stuff. Had tiger blood. Worked several full-time jobs most of the time I knew her. Was a soup kitchen for the world's hungry, needy soul. Rescued stray cats. Could leap tall buildings in a single bound. To say I miss her a lot would be the understatement of the year.

She was a barefoot girl who liked to go wading. A butterfly girl. She was blue butterflies and I was purple butterflies. We were two peas in a pod. Sisters and friends. Barefoot butterfly girls. And we had lots of adventures together, some of which you read about on these pages.

In her honor, after her passing, I planted a butterfly garden, and nurtured a stand of milkweed for the monarchs that has yielded many a golden-winged beauty. The butterfly garden wasn't much of a success for blooms but the fawns love it, and in summertime, I caught them sleeping there often. Barb would have loved that.

The picture above was taken at a family event. I believe it was my parents' wedding anniversary, maybe their 50th, which would have occurred back in the year 2000. Barb and I were both dressed in blue, sitting side by side. I don't remember who took this photo but look how happy we were, me with my sister's arm around my shoulders, both of us laughing.

I shared the two-girls-in-blue photo in the extras of a prior blip, last year on my sister's birthday. That golden girl on the right is my big sister Barb. I am the one on the left, holding a Pentax K-1000 pre-digital SLR I bought in 1986 or thereabouts. Yes, I was GirlWithACamera, even then.

I was going to make this posting a letter to my sister, whom I miss like a flower misses the sun. But I found I could not do it. There is so much I would say to her, but I can't bear the emotion that would go with all those words. I just. Can't. Do it.

So to sum up, I hate that my sister died young. I hate that she left so many people who loved her behind. I hate the pain all of that caused to my parents. But I love the fact that my big sister lived and that she was such an awesome caretaker to me and to the world and to all kinds of cats. I am grateful for all of what she was and did. And Susie, I am grateful: thank you for the perfect picture frame for us two butterfly girls.

In separate (and lighter) news, my husband and T. Tiger built a snowman to welcome me home from my walk. I added the eyes, nose, and scarf. You may see a photo of T. Tiger and "Cousin Paddy" in the extras. And yes, the snowman's eyes ARE indeed tiny turtle earrings. And what do you think of that HAT?

I have two pictures, so here are two songs. You must have known the first one had to be Dolly Parton, with Love Is Like a Butterfly. The second is Do You Want to Build a Snowman, from the movie Frozen.