My Sister, Adelle

(From Born Round)

Here she is at her wedding, with me to one side and Mark and Harry on the other.

She had a wicked sense of humor, which came out whenever Mom, in a down mood, went on about all she’d sacrificed and done for us: the laundry, the traveling to swim meets, the marathon cooking.

“I’ve come up with the title of the biography of Mom you’ll write someday,” she told me, with Mom listening in. “You should call it ‘My Mother and Other Christian Martyrs’.”

One weekend day Adelle and I neglected to get up from watching television as Mom, grunting theatrically, hauled grocery bags from the car into the kitchen.

“Don’t help!” Mom facetiously instructed us. “Please don’t even think about helping!”

“Maybe,” Adelle observed, “the book should be called ‘My Mother and Other Beasts of Burden’.”