Prima-Hermana/Cousin-Sister

My Spanish speaking students have relatives they call prima-hermana or cousin sister. I can relate to that term. Since I was the only girl in my family I never knew what it was like to have a sister. But I had a cousin sister who was 17 days younger than me.

Virginia and Nancy

Nancy was the closest I ever got to having a sister. She is pictured above with her younger sister Virginia. Virginia is 10 years younger than Nancy. The oldest and youngest in their family. So, for 10 years we were both the only girls in our families. 

Back to me and Nancy. Our mothers were sisters. We spent weeks together in the summer. A favorite activity was putting on a show for our parents in the Miller basement and charging our parents to come see us perform songs, dances, and jokes. I remember going to VBS twice each summer. Once at our church and again at their church. Our brothers stayed busy making huts in the woods and playing army or explorer or some other outdoor doings. Nancy and I read books, talked about movies and books, and made up alternative lyrics to popular songs. I remember sharing our 'new' words to the Beatles song "She was just 17".  

When we were in elementary school we wrote letters to each other during the school year. I think we started writing in about third grade. Our subject that year was catching sight of fairies in the trees near my house. We had vivid imaginations and were sure that we saw these wee figures high in the trees above us.

I had one family advantage over Nancy. I lived in town with most of our aunts and uncles. So I spent time with them and felt very possessive of them. I remember being reluctant to share Aunt Lanora with Nancy and her brothers. Of course I couldn't stop them from meeting Aunt Lanora who was just as sweet to them as she was to me and my brothers.

Both of us were good students but Nancy always made better grades. We both read voraciously, played the piano, and liked to sew. We both wanted to be writers when we grew up. Nancy loved family stories and kept her writing going with a yearly family letter. I turned out to more of a talker than writer and have spent lots of time teaching and making presentations at conferences.

One summer I attended UGA with Nancy and met the love of her life, Terry. They married in 1972; the same year I began teaching in North Georgia. I sang at their wedding. The years went by and we both had children. We saw each other at family gatherings. One summer her daughter Mariah went to music camp at Blue Mountain College with me and the kids from my children's choir.

Then the International Ballet Competition became a special event that we enjoyed together. Arwen was accepted to the dance school and Nancy bought tickets to all the rounds of the competition. I was happy to go with her. I had helped backstage at the first competition and always tried to see some of the rounds, even when the kids were small and money was tight.

At the last competition Nancy stayed with us for some of the rounds. We enjoyed going to eat at a couple of Jackson's long time favorite restaurants: Primos and the Mayflower. We retold stories we had heard from our parents about times they enjoyed the food at these places when they were twenty-somethings working downtown.

These aren't all the memories I have of my cousin-sister Nancy but these are all that I will share today. Nancy joined her beloved Terry in heaven today. I will miss her.