Friday, May 2, 2014

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: An Easter Tradition







Since I was in the middle of the A to Z Challenge all during the month of April, I didn't get a chance to tell you about an Easter tradition that is very dear to my heart. 

My sister will probably laugh when she sees this picture. She will probably THINK she knows the tale I will tell today. Maybe she will be correct. And maybe she will learn a thing or two.

Card-giving is a billion dollar business. Today there are cards for every conceivable situation so finding one that says just what the sender wants it to say is kinda like shooting fish in a barrel...odds are in your favor.

But when I was about 8 years old the card selection wasn't that great. I didn't have the money to buy something other than this card to give to my big sister for Easter. I didn't even take the time to sign it and truth be told, Janet kept the card...only to return the SAME card back to me the following year. She says she did it simply because she really didn't like the card in the first place and was just trying to get rid of it.

Maybe that's true. Then again, maybe she was just starting an Easter tradition that has stood the test of time. Year after year, decade after decade, this card has traveled back and forth from my hands to hers. In between it is tucked into safe keeping until it is time to take it out again and send it on it's special journey back into another sister's hands.

I can't even tell you what it says on the inside but I CAN tell you what it whispers to me before I tuck it away for another year.

I am still here.

The sisterly bond has not been broken.

Love has endured despite births, deaths, marriage, divorce, illness, and all the other possibilities of the human condition to tax our minds and spirits. That little card has reminded me of this fact for FORTY-FIVE YEARS of passing from my hands to my sister's. It is a symbol of the most cherished part of my childhood and I pray God allows us to carry on our Easter tradition for many more years to come...


5 comments:

  1. Hi Donna and Janet - how lovely to see the card and the fact that the bond has helped you both retain the card and each year remember each other in a special way ... fun story ... something to suggest to youngsters too - cheers Hilary

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    1. Thanks, Hilary. If Donna had signed that card, I'm sure it would have disappeared 45 years ago. I'm not sure there was an envelope.

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    2. Hi Hilary! My sister and I have been through more stuff than could fill a book...make that TWO books...and that card is a nice reminder...as if I NEED one...;~)

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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  2. Donna, you didn't mention all the places that card has been. Up and down the coast of California, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee...That card is our own TONTINE. The last one holding the card gets to keep it. (That'll be you).
    On my 18th birthday, there was NO mention of the occasion whatsoever. Except by Donna--she sent me a birthday card, which she signed. I couldn't return the card to her on her birthday the following week. Yes, I am that cheap....

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    1. Awww, Janet, you're not cheap...you are creatively poor!

      Thanks for stopping by and come back any time!

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