A Day I’ll Remember Never To Forget

I’ve been preparing to take the GMAT so it’s taken a couple days to find the time to sit down and write, but I want to remember how incredibly wonderful it was to see the first of my sisters get married to a wonderful man and companion in the temple this past weekend.

We’re super close, my sisters and I. As kids we used to say we were the three musketeers. We even later added to our group our own “d'Artagnan,” our younger (and only female) cousin on my dad’s side. We were always close, but became even closer after losing our mom as teenagers.

The last ten years we banded together, looking after each other, supporting each other, through everything. And I mean, everything. My sister just younger than me was my rock of support when I thought I would break, my youngest sister was my home base where I could run to for safety to regroup, and I was their guardian and protector jumping in to save the day when anything went wrong. We each filled for the others the place, the gaps, where our mom once stood in our individual lives. We were each other’s teachers, examples, best friends and even at times, each other’s perceived worst enemies. But that’s what it truly means to be sisters, right?

My role as I said was to guard and protect. I got used to defending and preserving their freedom and opportunities. Making sure our circumstances or challenges in no way hindered our potential to reach goals we had always had: to get an education, to do something we love, to be financially independent, secure and happy. And one day, as Latter-day Saint women, to marry in the temple and have a family too, if that was the Lord’s plan. This was a role and responsibility I took very seriously.  

Then this last year, after we’ve all graduated, gotten jobs, etc. my sisters have gradually and quietly come into their own. It wasn’t until a bridal shower as I sat back watching my sister interact for the first time in this new world and adventure she was embarking on that I suddenly thought, “Wow, who is this incredibly strong, capable and confident woman sitting next to me?” It wasn’t the girl I shielded in my shadow anymore. Without even realizing it, she had grown up right before my eyes. And into the kind of woman my mom had hoped we would each be.

When her wedding day came I couldn’t help but tear up sitting there in this absolutely heaven like room we call the sealing room, a room found in LDS temples, watching her hand in hand with her now husband making promises of real love and commitment for time and all eternity. She was absolutely radiant. The joy in her eyes struck me as I watched her step through and close this difficult chapter of loss, despair and discouragement; having never given up, having held on to us as we held onto her to make it, and now she was moving on. I realized watching her that suddenly now, we did it. We’ve made it. And now she is my example of hope, strength and courage the way I have always tried to be hers.