My sister is twelve years older than me. The last time we lived in the same town was nearly 40 years ago, when I shared a bedroom with her.  She went away to college when I was six.

For over twenty years, she lived in Asia. When she moved to Hawaii, she was considered close–at least in the same country.  We got the same TV shows. 

This past August, she moved to the same town I live in, just a five minute walk from my house.  It has been an odd and wonderful feeling to have my sister so close by. I am used to seeing her once a year, usually in the summer, on "home leave." Now, we go for walks in the morning or run errands together.  I can call her up and she’s ready in a flash to go out for lunch. We ride bikes together. 

The convenience of our relationship has been great. She is slightly smaller than I am, so we swap clothes when she’s bought something too big or I have something too tight. 

In many ways, we are not alike at all. My sister likes glitz and sparkle. She was most at home when she lived in Hong Kong.  I like wrapping gifts in brown paper and raffia and adding a pine cone from my backyard. My sister has always been right-brained, loving mythology and studying Asian literature in college. I went the left-brain route with engineering and math.  My sister can be temperamental and sometimes even downright pushy.  She fit in well with New Yorkers when she was grad school at Columbia. Most people describe me as even keel and diplomatic (except when I’m not…)

Despite our differences, my sister and I can erupt into laughter with just a few words spoken between us.  We know how to use humor with each other such that our stomachs hurt from small chuckles turned into huge guffaws.

I didn’t realize how much I missed having a sister in my daily life. What a joy to discover a loss only through having it filled later in life.