When the girls were little, they colored and painted, drew pictures and dressed up, and played with dollhouses and Barbie dolls. Their bedroom was sometimes a playground, sometimes a city, sometimes a garden for toys they made themselves. It was always untidy.
With such a large group of good and loyal friends, it is no surprise that Laura and Mark have been auntie and uncle par excellence. Elementary basketball and volleyball games in the friendly confines of small school gymnasiums, pints and half pints baseball in towns without Starbucks, outings to the Zoo, the Arch, the Science Center, even the tippy top of the City Museum in St. Louis. Pernod Gardens is a home away from home with surf 'n turf from Chef Mark...especially for college freshmen. We celebrate whatever the occasion: Farm Bureau Nights at the Ballpark with Kosher brats, New Year's Eves with party poppers and silly hats, July 4ths with epic fireworks, golf for fun and good causes...
One of us is a country mouse and one a city mouse, but though we live a state apart, we have many shared loves. Laura was the very first transplanter at Hurst Greenery years and years ago, and it's still a great pleasure to task Mark with packing posies in the back of their car for a summer's sojourn in St. Louis. We commiserate when the weather is dry..or hot...cold or windy...we celebrate the beauties of orchids, daylilies, pansies, and hibiscus. Pottery from across the country graces the tables and shelves of our homes; magnets from far and wide decorate the doors of our refrigerators. Each of us keeps a stack of books close at hand in various states of read and hope to read. And both of us carry the story of our lives in photographs: from Instamatics to iPhones, from big hair to big hats, babies to grandbabies, weddings and reunions, graduations and good-byes.
These are the ties that bind through the years, that weave a family history across the miles, and make sisters friends.....
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