Ginny's Birthday

60 years ago my grandmother woke me up to tell me that I had a sister.  Thus began a journey that has been full of love, frustration, joy, sorrow, fun, sometimes problematic and always interesting. 


We lived in Atlantic, Iowa when she was born, moved to Jackson, Nebraska shortly thereafter and for one month in South Sioux City, Iowa.  Then we moved back to Ames to live with our grandparents when Mom and Ginny's dad divorced.  We went to Gilbert, Iowa to school.  Ginny went through the 6th grade there and then we moved into Ames and I went away to College.  

I can remember times when I laid in the car holding her because she was crying. In many ways she was the center of my life. I loved her unconditionally. 

 You can see how adorable she was.  However I want you to know that this is not Ginny.  She is/was not a dresses and fru fru type of girl.  She was the one who was in jeans and climbed the trees and played in the woods and loved being outside.  She loved her animals and always had a fun attitude.  


Every year we went to the Lake (Leech Lake in Minnesota) for one, two or three weeks and she (we) lived for those times.  Mom and Ginny would plan these trips for months before we left and they would both bawl for miles on the way home.


One of the places we loved to go was to Deer Valley.  Ginny loved the animals and she met the son of the owners and wonder of wonders one year she decided to stay.  She and Mike had a lot of fun at the park and Mike's folks were wonderful friends of all of us.  

 Things did not work out with Mike but they remained friends and Ginny came back to Ames.  30 years ago she brought her son Jon into the family and her mother and I could not have been happier.  Jon has been a real joy.  


There is more to the story but it is Ginny's and not mine to tell.  

 Several years ago Ginny took up flying lessons.  But she was in her little pick up truck and she was thrown from the car and broke her back.  She wound up in a wheel chair and has had to overcome many things but you know she has a great outlook on things.  She went back to school and got her degree and is volunteering at the Reimann Gardens and the Red Rock animal center in Des Moines. She just started a job at Iowa State University.  She runs the Information Kiosk on University Blvd.  It doesn't pay a lot but at least it is a job and she is happy to have it.   

The Queen just celebrated her diamond jubilee. Sixty years on the throne. Ginny  is celebrating her 60th Birthday July 1 and I told her that makes her a sexigenerian. Having just gone through that decade (it's the only time in my life that I was sexy) I feel that I can give her advice.  But only if she asks for it.


A long time ago I wrote a poem about her. I based it on the poem My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson.  I can only remember the first two lines.

I have a little sister who goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of her is more than I can see.

That is because she followed me all over the place.  We were each other's best friends.  I will always be grateful that I have that little sister and I wish her a very Happy Birthday.