A World Full of Sisters

My Sisters

I am so lucky in life to have three sisters, Suzie, Kathy and Vicky. Growing up, we played together and fought together, as all sisters do. We stuck together when we moved to a new town. We borrowed clothes (sometimes without asking first, which doesn't truly count as borrowing so much as sneaking). We shared bedrooms. We shared a single bathroom (which was fine until those teenaged years when it became quite a challenge!) We annoyed each other. We helped each other. We loved each other. With the exception of living together, we still do all these things. It's what sisters do!

Now, we've all grown into women. We've created our own new families, our own new lives. We live far apart from each other, spread across the country from the Pacific to the Atlantic and the heartland in between. We don't see each other very often at all, and very rarely all at once. But we are still sisters. We are bound together by a family thread that won't be broken no matter what life throws our way.

My Lustre Sisters

I am also blessed to have three "sisters" of a different sort. I am lucky enough to sing in a barbershop quartet called Lustre. For the past five years, we have met weekly to rehearse and perfect our songs, and have had the opportunity to give performances together all throughout each year. We have gone through highs and lows together, and have celebrated so many wonderful moments together, and supported each other through life's challenges. Lori, Lori and Laura are like adopted sisters to me.

My Sweet Adelines Sisters

I am so fortunate to not only have the sisters mentioned above, but also to have 60 other "sisters" in my Sweet Adelines chorus, the Harbor City Music Company (HCMC). There is nothing quite like belonging to an organization of women - the sharing, the caring is like no other experience. We gather weekly for chorus rehearsal where we learn to sing and perform. But during those rehearsals, over the course of the weeks, months, years, we form bonds. We work together toward a goal. We share the workload of running a large volunteer organization. We share creativity and inspiration. We get to know each other, and we include each other in our circle of care, becoming "sisters" and forging lifelong friendships.

It is through HCMC that I met some of the women who are inspiring me to do the 3-day walk: Nancy D., Eve S., and Alta P. Through HCMC, I met the sisters and teammates for the Harbor City Titty Committee. HCMC has become my extended family, with as many substitute mothers, aunts, and sisters as as girl could imagine.

Beyond HCMC, there are all the other women in the Region 19 Sweet Adelines organization with whom I share these bonds. I just returned from the annual Region 19 convention, where the overwhelming feeling was one of sharing and sisterhood. I am so lucky that I have a hobby that brings me close to thousands of women, in spirit and in song.

With all of these amazing sisters in my life, the urge to contribute to the fight against breast cancer is too strong to ignore. All of these women matter to me. Every one. Each and every one of these women deserve to have a full lifetime. And so I'm walking to help find a cure for this disease. So that we can change the statistics, to go from 1 in 8 women, to 1 in 800, then 1 in 8,000,000, then finally, eradicate the disease forever. So that we can find better treatments, provide better support systems for our cancer warrior sisters, and find a cure.

Won't you please join the fight against breast cancer? Please donate today.