It all started when my sister Deborah gave me a birthday card of four older women in swimsuits holding hands with each other and wading out into the ocean, their backs to the camera.\u00a0 \u201cLike the four of us!\u201d she pointed out, as if an explanation were necessary.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, let\u2019s hope when the Braver sisters are that old, we look that good,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Some twenty years later, I\u2019d collected so many greeting cards picturing four women that I didn\u2019t know what to do with them.\u00a0 Four matrons playing croquet.\u00a0 Four pre-Raphaelite sylphs in a forest.\u00a0 Four nuns lighting up cigarettes.\u00a0 Four co-eds engaged in a tug-of-war.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got braided frauleins from Germany.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got French bikini-clad babes, all with different hair colors (\u201cIl y en a pour tous les gouts!\u201d).\u00a0 Nice<\/em>, says the latter along the top\u2014the city, not the adjective, but you understand the confusion.<\/p>\n This is not a hobby most people can identify with.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you have photos of you and your sisters instead?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s\u2014uhh, cute.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYou need a picture of Sex and the City<\/em>!\u201d\u00a0 Such are the comments I\u2019ve gotten over the years when, not wanting to accept that the collection doesn\u2019t quite translate, I\u2019ve shown it off to friends.\u00a0 The truth is, I myself don’t find it entirely explicable.<\/p>\n What I do know is that my bond with my three sisters has only grown over time.\u00a0 As children, we survived extreme unpredictability, many episodes of domestic violence, and a traumatic custody battle.\u00a0 I think learning to function as a unit has given the four of us a feeling of connectedness and accomplishment, and grounding we never had as kids.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve all chosen to live near each other, and while we can count on one another for holidays and emergencies, the relationships are far more immediate than that, more vital\u2014despite our differences in temperament, circumstances and perspective.\u00a0 Scarcely a day goes by when I don\u2019t talk to a sister or two, often all three.<\/p>\n People sometimes ask me why I\u2019ve been so devoted to my parents as an adult, given my childhood.\u00a0 While I want to err on the side of generosity, it\u2019s mostly about making things easier for my sisters.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t take Mom to a medical appointment, it means Erica will.\u00a0 In theory, of course, we\u2019re all free agents, but as a practical matter, we cover for one another.\u00a0 It\u2019s only in this way that we\u2019ve been able to make it.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s completely natural that it required all four of us to transform the greeting card collection into a giant collage (a set of six collages, actually).\u00a0 Margo brought over her two boys, and we set to work, the other sisters cycling in and out to give opinions.\u00a0 Horizontal display, or vertical?\u00a0 Elmer\u2019s, or rubber cement?\u00a0 Overlapping, or spaced out?\u00a0 And what about the trashy postcards\u2014like Sun Your Buns! In California!<\/em>\u2014in, or out?\u00a0 (I made an executive decision: in.)<\/p>\n I now have the nearly ninety cards all framed, taking up a total of 18 square feet.\u00a0 Tough broads in a basketball court.\u00a0 Bathing beauties atop a giant grand piano.\u00a0 Sixties-era waifs paddling in a fake boat.\u00a0 Thick-ankled old battle-axes with ice cream cones.\u00a0 Ballerinas crossing Abbey Road.<\/p>\n And in a nod to Where\u2019s Waldo?<\/em>, I did stick in one photo of the four of us.<\/p>\n Published in the Piedmont Post<\/em>, December 16, 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It all started when my sister Deborah gave me a birthday card of four older women in swimsuits holding hands with each other and wading out into the ocean, their backs to the camera.\u00a0 \u201cLike the four of us!\u201d she pointed out, as if an explanation were necessary. \u201cYeah, let\u2019s hope when the Braver sisters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,89,90],"yoast_head":"\n