A
picture is worth a thousand words, and this is no exception...
...although in this case it's
around eighteen-thousand words.
It
doesn't take a massive leap to imagine the girl on the right could
really be a boy.
One could imagine any number scenarios which could precede 'her' eldest brother's graduation day....
One could imagine any number scenarios which could precede 'her' eldest brother's graduation day....
Here's mine.
A
Surrogate Sister
My brothers and I were
all concerned about our mother. A few years ago she was a normal
happy mother, full of the joys of spring, so to speak. But after the
doctors told her that she could no longer have children, meaning she
wouldn't have the daughter she'd always longed for, she fell into a
deep depression. This caused an ever growing rift between her and
dad, and eventually he just upped sticks and left us. Not
surprisingly her depression got worse. So much so she ended up in
hospital for a couple of weeks and our Aunt Vera came to look after
us until our mother had got herself well again. But she was never the
same as she used to be. George, Andrew and I all knew there was a
hole in her heart... and if any of us knew anything about heart
surgery, we'd do whatever we could to fix it.
One
Saturday morning she was in a particularly chirpy mood. She sat us
around the table and announced that she'd come up with a solution to
our 'family problem'. “How would you boys like to have a sister?”
Knowing that was the
one thing our mother longed for, we all said “Yes” but knew that
she couldn't have children any more. We also knew that she'd also
been turned down for adoption and fostering, most likely due to her
history of depression. “But how?” George asked.
“Well, I've done lots
of reading and spoken to all the right people.” she said, “And
I've made all the necessary arrangements... well, as far as I can at
this early stage.” she told us with enthusiasm. “But once the
ball is rolling, I expect our problems will be over in no time at
all!”
“Great!” each of us
said in our own way. “But where's she coming from?”
“Well, that's where you
come in.” she said with an expectant smile on her face. "All I need is for one of you brave and beautiful boys to
volunteer."