Tale Of Two Sisters

Rachel

“Here I am cheerly coloring alongside my older sister while she encouraged me, “You’re doing really good!” She suggested mom take a picture but the moment we held up our pages for the camera she whispered to me, “Yours is terrible!” The rest of the story is written across my face.”

Nichol

“I am the oldest of four, with my little sister here, being the youngest. Until she showed up I was the queen of everything. Needless to say, I was a little bit jealous. One day, we were coloring together and she as try I got to color like me. She was two or three. I was about seven. I was pretty proud of my newly honed artistic skills and  wasn’t prepared to let her take this away from me. So I encouraged her and to,d her what a good job she as doing and that her picture was really pretty. Every time I’d use a crayon, she’d wait until I was finished and then use it and try to do what I was doing. My mother, clearly touched by the love and sisterly affection shown between us, wanted to see a picture to preserve the moment forever. She asked us to hold up our pictures. I asked my mom to wait a minute and whispered in my impressionable little sisters ear, “yours is a scribbled mess” the I smiled for the camera and my mom snapped. Capturing the moment I popped my sisters balloon and let her have it. Am I proud? No. Is it funny? Yes!!! Every time I see this pictures I cry with laughter. My mom didn’t knickname me Lucy (after the Peanuts character) for no reason.  I showed this picture to my husband when we first started dating and was howling with laughter at the time. He was appalled, but he still married me. Ten years later, there are times he remembers this picture and wonders why he didn’t heed this warning. The way I look at it, I saved her from a lifetime of misplaced confidence. She was clearly not as good as me, and she could have ended up like those people who’ve ended up in X-factor because they’ve had encouragement when they should have been told to stop. Thank goodness my little sister had me.”

(submitted by Rachel and Nichol in the UK)