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My Baby Sister

Rhonda M. Ross

Now, my baby sister was the apple of my eye. I loved the ground she walked on and she could not do any wrong in my eye. She lived with my grandmother in the house on the lot adjacent to ours. She was about two or three years younger than me. She had the softest voice and carried herself well in public. My grandmother and mother taught her well, to be lady-like. She was about two grades behind me so I wanted to look out for her as a big brother should do.

I remember a girl that was giving my sister a hard time. She lived on Park Street, right across the road, constantly saying things about my sister, and driving my sister crazy. Then, one day it all came to a close when Rhonda lost it and jumped her. There was not much of a fight because she was taken by surprise and it was “lights out.” The girl didn’t know what hit her and the fight was over just as soon as it was started. Rhonda had gained her respect because she was not going to be bullied anymore. The Ross children were not known to start a fight but we would always finish them.

When I enlisted in the military, my sister married her high school sweetheart, Luis, and moved out of my grandmother’s house. Unfortunately, I knew her husband and did not think too much of him. He was too hard on a pair of shoes. He could destroy a pair of good shoes in a week. I really could not understand how a man could walk out of a pair of good shoes in such a short period of time. But my sister married him and loved him; so that was that.

She bore him a beautiful daughter and they named her Melisa, as beautiful as her mother. But Luis was abusive with Rhonda and soon they separated and were divorced, and I said good riddance. After her divorce, she moved to Houston, Texas to attend school and later graduated.

She met Herbert Scoot and they fell in love. He was an older man and I was uncomfortable with their relationship. As a matter of fact, he was older than my mother. But my sister loved him and I could not run him away from her by threatening him. But as he became my brother-in-law, I learned to love and respect him because he had two children with my sister. I used to visit them often and we would sit and listen to his music and just have fun.

My sister became ill and had a problem with her lungs. The last time I visited my sister, she told me that she was tired. Regrettably, I missed what she was trying to tell me. I did not grasp that she was saying she was tired of hanging on to her life. I did not stop to truly understand just what she was trying to tell me. I was just enjoying her as she was and did not think of her suffering. My sister had suffered a long time, going to see doctor’s time after time again and was not getting any better. I guess I wanted my sister to stay with me because I just wasn’t ready for her to go.

When they called and told me that her heart had stopped at the doctor’s office and that she was hospitalized, I lost it. My baby sister was on her death bed. When I saw her, my heart broke. I was looking at her but I could not help her. I began to ask the Lord not to take her but I believe my sister had already made up her mind that she was going home. Any amount of praying to the Lord was not going to do any good; for when a Christian makes up their mind to leave this life; they have already heard from all high.

It is for us to accept death as it unfolds. We may want our loved one to stay because we feel that we cannot live without them; and it may hurt so bad that we ask God to spare us the pain. But Rhonda never woke up again to tell me goodbye; she had already told me goodbye when she said that she was so tired. I believe now that this was her way of telling me, “George, I am just so tired of suffering and I just want to go home.”

My sister’s death came before my mother’s and she was so hurt saying to me, “George, your children should bury their parents.” And she wept. My whole family was hurt by my sister’s death; all we could do was comfort one another. Between the Ross, Miller and White families, and many other close cousins, there are only two sisters and we suffered death in our family hard. We are such a close family, growing up together we all became family.

Bryon Scott; Oveana Scott; Michelle Lindley