Missing My Baby Sister

I just finished a video chat with my dear little sister a while ago.  I told her I was getting sleepy.  It was 11:00 P.M. and I wanted to get up early tomorrow.  But before I pressed "End Call", I couldn't resist pressing the "Take a Video Snapshot" button.  I told her I took her picture, and she gently scolded me for not warning her first.  Then, she dramatically removed her eyeglasses, tucked her hair behind her ears, quickly ran her hands over her face, and struck an angled pose. I took two more pictures and she started clicking on her screen too and took pictures of me.  We had a very short silly giggly time.  When I finally signed off, I heaved a great big sigh and felt a pang in my chest.  I miss her terribly.

What a beautiful person she is!  She is someone who has her eyes set on doing good in this earth, and makes sure she shows her loved ones how much she cares.   She cheerfully put her doctorate abroad on hold since last year to help Mama take care of Papa, who is very ill.

She will always be our baby girl with the big doe eyes and the rosy cheeks.  My first job in 1985 when I was sixteen years old was in McDonald's.  I worked from 7:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. every Saturday for a year.  With my first paycheck, I bought her a pair of plaid kids' Tretorn sneakers, just because I wanted to get her something special.  I remember fixing her hair a lot for school and covering her face with kisses. 

We did not have the chance to be really close roomies with regular girl talks because I am seven years older than her.  I went off to the university dorm when I was 17, and she was 10. When we lived in Victoria, in 1993, we made sunrise dates, she would come over to my apartment to borrow clothes, or I would drive her out to parties of wherever she had to go. Upon our return to Manila, my life took off with "The Busy Schedule."  Then she left for Hawaii.  Most of our bonding these past two years has been over Yahoo Messenger, Gmail, GTalk, and most recently, Skype.  Then when I stopped working, I started spending more quality time at Mama's house last year.  When the kids and I visited Manila last January, we got to see each other a lot more.  

There will be more time to be together, perhaps when Papa gets better and she can come over for a few days, or when we go to Manila again to visit.

For now, it'll be special occasion cards sent through the post office and a lot of online chatting.