A Smile In My Heart

It all turned out like magic

My sister came from another family, a very very religious one and because of that she stood out from rest of the kids. She had to wear long skirts and sleeves below her elbows, could not cut her hair and was only allowed to wear it in one style. She felt like a freak because she was 13. TV and modern music was sure never allowed in their house. Her parents would knock the crap out of her in a heartbeat.. I am not sure why, I guess to obey on demand or spare the rod and spoil the child crap. I was younger and played with her brothers and they all loved our house because they could watch tv and there were no rules at all. She was high spirited and rebeled and boy did she get her parents back good. They found out she had a black boyfriend and they were having sex, they booted her from the house and to ours she came for good. From that time her father barely spoke to her and I think her mom just felt in a tough spot now that I am older looking back. She had 3 brothers and when they did grow up she did have a distant relationship with 2 and the 3rd brother never spoke to her again.
So once she came to our house to live, she was able to do as she wanted so off came the hair and on came modern clothes and lots of dancing. I was young so it all just seemed natural to me, I just had another sister.
At some point she became pregant (by black boyfriend) and eventually they married. The had 2 kids and he died later from drugs. Chrissy had a sense of humor and it was a good thing. Her husband died in bed with her.. like that isn’t a bad nightmare but we managed to get so many jokes out of that. He was part of our family to of course, he married into it. Holidays with him were great, I missed him when he died. Anyway so that is how she became sister. At one time I know her and Mums spoke of making the adoption legal even tho by then she was an adult. It seemed important to her but never happened and didn’t need to anyway she was every bit a family member as the rest of us. No diffences were ever made. If our Mums had died before her she had equal stuff as the rest of us. See so she really was a sister.

In later years she did have a wonderful long distant relationship with her youngest brother. He is a pastor of the same faith they grew up in but he treated her with love, he did not judge. She did get to visit him once and see him preach loved how he sang Amazing Grace.

He came and I have had the pleasure of spending time with him… we were good friends as kids. I love him and he did sing Amazing Grace and he rocked! It sounded like Ray Charles and was sung at a pace that made you want to move. He sang it with soul and a faster beat.

So between him, I and neice who at this point just relied on us as to how things would go.
Someone opened in prayer and then he sang. Next I spoke and it was my job to make sure it went in Chrissy’s style. I warmed them up, reminding them this is a celebration of life. I made it light and funny, I wanted them to feel comfortable, that was important to me that it was a reflection of how she lived.
It went great, there was between 75 and 100 and I have to believe they were comfortable because at least a 3rd stood and said wonderful things. One thing about Chrissy is she spoke of people in her life so tho I had not met many of them, we all agreed it felt like we knew each other.

2 of her natural brothers, the Preacher and his older brother who had not spoke in years ended up singing together and made peace. LOL the Preacher said to me.. peace until the next time cuz the other brother always makes drama. He tried to but I nipped him.
The gathering afterwards went well.. over all it Rocked! She would have LOVED it!