I grew up with 3 older sisters and no brothers. My sisters were 8, 10, and 12 years older than I. They were around for my younger years, but were off and married during my adolescent years.
Our parents were amazing. Somehow they managed to raise 4 highly individual daughters and yet maintain a strong family connection. Even more importantly they raised us to respect each others' differences. Perhaps one significant aspect of our individuality was that there wasn't a lot of reason for competition among us.
Because my sisters were so much older than I when they married, their husbands became more like older brothers to me than just my sisters' chosen significant others. They were just as different from one another as my sisters were. I was young enough to look up to them and embrace their individuality. They were fascinating men.
First came Joseph. He married my sister, Mary. Poetic isn't it? Better yet, he is Jewish--an addition to our Christian family. Joseph is Canadian--an addition to our American family. He and my sister are scientists. He is an activist, a pacifist, who studied nuclear science. Through them I learned so much about our world, its environment, and our responsibility to it. They lived in 3rd world countries teaching in their universities, or working in their villages. (And I got to visit them in some of those countries! WoW! What an opportunity for a young girl.) They taught me that as great as America is, she doesn't have all the answers. From the beginning, Joseph fascinated me. He was outspoken, fun, warm, and lively. My earliest and fondest memory of him was sitting on the couch with him and my sister, reading "Winnie the Pooh". I was just hitting my teen years. He was a wonderful reader who laughed and chuckled his way through the book. He is probably the reason that book became one of my favorites.
Then came Larry. He married my sister Susan. Larry was Christian Science--a bit of a stretch for my parents (my dad, the MD, and my mother, the nurse). They tried to dissuade my sister, but when she said he was the one, they accepted her decision and welcomed him into the family. (One way my parents taught us unconditional love.) Larry was just plain fun. He loved to have a good time. (He still does!) A favorite memory of mine focuses on our summers in Connecticut. We played King of the Mountain, swimming in the pond with rafts and inner tubes. It was the best, because he always gave us a good fight. His laugh was deep, rumbly and contagious. One memory I've carried for years is watching Sue and Larry walking ahead of us at an amusement park, holding hands, Sue skipping along beside him. He and my sister had such a good time playing. But they were devoted to their faith and we had many interesting discussions about it. He helped me think more about my own faith, defining and understanding it.
Last was Lee. He married my sister, Jean. Lee was Protestant. (I can almost hear my parents sigh with relief. "Phew!") He was the son of a banker, from our home town. But he was clearly his own person, and was destined to follow a different path from Banker's Son. Lee was not a scholar, or student as defined by college degrees. But if you read about the forefathers of this country, George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, you see how many subjects they studied and learned on their own, by reading, researching and practicing. Lee would have been highly successful in those days. That was how he did it. Following a set education was never Lee's way. But I know of few (honestly, I don't know any) people who have learned more and taught themselves more than Lee did.
His first love seemed to be electronics. As a high school kid he set up the electronics systems for his church. His bedroom was loaded with speakers, amps, control systems. Engineering was in his blood, but he couldn't sit still long enough to get through the basic classes in college that either covered stuff he knew, or covered stuff he couldn't imagine needing to know.
Through his life he was an electronics technician, a volunteer fireman, and EMT, a dairy farmer, a veal farmer, and a custom cabinet maker.
My young children were in awe of him. He built the veal farm from the ground up, as well as a large Salt Box style home. For his house he designed a 3-way heating system that could support oil, wood or solar so it would never be without heat. As my daughter, Jen, put it, "I didn't think there was anything he couldn't fix."
Through it all, he harbored a deep interest in boating and owned a few boats, but it wasn't until he and Jean had a two-year stint in Australia that he was close enough to water to really get into it. Boating and boat rescue became a big part of their lives. And this led to the final dream.
Lee and his son decided to build a boat. First they designed it. It would be a 42' Trawler. Then, III went to a shipyard to help build the hull. From there it was 7 years of 'every night and weekend' working on the boat. Every inch of it was built by them. When he was fiberglassing the wheel house I asked him if he had ever done fiberglass before. "No", he answered matter-of-factly. "Then what made you think you could do it?" I asked.
He shrugged and said, "I read up on it, asked some questions and figured I could do that."
That pretty much sums up the way he looked at life.
What did I learn from Lee? That if you truly want it, you can do it. Success begins with a dream, depends on a plan, and comes to those who follow through.My brothers have been amazing. Each one has enriched my life, taught me so much about life, faith, and the world. My sisters were fortunate to have met such great men. I was lucky to be young enough to enjoy getting to know them and learn from them.
I grew up with 3 sisters. But I inherited 3 awesome brothers.
