Читать книгу A Home of Her Own - Бренда Новак - Страница 5

To Tonya, my oldest sister. She let her friend offer me my first

(and only) cigarette when I was eight years old and she was

eighteen, then cried laughing when I nearly hacked to death.

She locked me and my other siblings out when she baby-sat

so she could bake cookies and eat them without us. She

refused to let us cross the holy threshold of her room,

where she entranced us (standing outside looking in)

with such mysterious antics as burning incense and

making bottle candles out of crayons.

She also rocked me for hours when I was a baby,

bathed me until I was old enough to bath myself,

married young and let me stay with her almost every

weekend, took the heat from my parents when I stupidly

caused the loss of something important to the family,

taught me how to cook and clean and decorate.

You’ve been a friend, a sister, a mother to me, Tonya.

For everything, I love you.