MY SISTER

Today I was reading my comments and I decided I wanted to write about one of my sisters in particular. I’m sure my other sisters will agree with everything I say about this sister.

Her name is Elizabeth Susanne but we call her Betty. We used to call her Betsy when she was younger but this one uncle of ours always called her "Betsy the Moose". One day mom decided that was enough so she asked us all to start calling her Betty. We called her Betty and the uncle dropped the "Moose" part.

Betty was born third out of six. (3 of 6) so she was never the oldest or never the youngest. (Except for short time after her birth). She was a very stubborn girl while growing up. I guess she wanted to be her own person. When it came to spankings my dad would never like to spank her. She reminded him too much of his younger sister that had died when he was just a child. We older girls didn’t think that was very fair and we got more than our share of spankings.

Betty grew up to be a beautiful woman. She is married to a great guy and has three grown up kids and one grandson. She works as a teachers aide with young children and she is a whiz with all young children.

So why did I want to write about Betty? Well, there are many reasons. One of them is that Betty has a servant/helper nature about her. She sees things that need doing and she gets in there and does them. There have been a few times my other sister has been overwhelmed by her four kids, so Betty comes in and takes them off her hands for awhile to let her get some rest. Betty is the type that brings food with her when she comes to visit. She is always bringing pies and things over to my mom and dad’s. One summer she brought hamburgers, already cooked and wrapped, when she came out to visit us. She didn’t want me to feel like I had to make something special for them.

When it comes to faithfulness, (not sure if that is the right word for this) again you look to Betty and her husband. There are five of my sisters living in the city and my parents. When I go into the city and ask my parents if the rest of the girls have been over lately, I usually get a comment like "Well we saw so and so last week for a bit, haven’t seen so and so for awhile, and well Betty and Wayne are here most Sundays." They visit my parents regularly. If they can’t make it one day, they usually make it on another. It’s the same for us. We have lived out of town now for 5 years and Betty and Wayne make a point of visiting us at least once or twice a year in summer.

As I said earlier, she is great with kids. She’s the mom that had all the kids hanging out at her place. She even had some living with her for awhile. She would take my daughter out on camping trips with them. She would take her and my other’s sisters kids out for lunches and such. She loves kids and she is so great with them.

She is also a helper in so many ways. If someone needs a volunteer for something - Betty is Johnny on the spot. She’s helped my mom with painting and who knows what else. You need a batch of pie crust? Betty will whip you up a batch in no time flat and you can freeze it so it doesn’t go bad. You need a tip on how to clean something - call Betty - she has amazing tips for nearly everything.

Her husband Wayne is much the same as she is when it comes to doing things and being generous. He’s a cabinet maker by trade and has installed, built and put in many things for our families over the years.

There is much more I could say about Betty but I will leave it for now. She gives and gives of herself and never expects anything in return. If you try to acknowledge what she does, she just kind of shrugs it off as nothing. That’s why I’ve chosen to write about her on this blog. She can read it privately and not get so flustered. Betty, I really love you and look up to you a lot. Wish I had more of your strengths.

Have a Blessed Day.

P.S. Wish Darlene could take all this and rewrite it so it sounded a lot nicer.