Her Life...
 

Joanne was born special. My mom new right away after she was born that there
was something  wrong with her speech. For years she battled it out with doctors....never
ceasing the attempt to find one who would believe her. Finally Joanne's birth defect was
discovered. The roof of her mouth had not fully formed. After surgery and extensive speech
therapy so she could re-learn how to speak. Joanne talked like every other child. 
Joanne and I were roughly five and a half years apart. So I don't recall much of when we were
both little. I do recall her being the typical older sister who found great joy in telling me
stories such as: "Gypsies left you in the gutter in front of the house..Mom found you and felt
sorry for you so she decided to keep you." There was the occasional fist fight and the
frequent doorslamming. It seemed to us at the time that we could not stand to be around  eachother.
 
She was a slob, a total slob. I liked things clean. So sharing a room was interesting to say the least. At night Joanne would throw all her stuffed animals (about 12 of them) on the floor and go right to bed. I could never sleep with that mess on the floor so I would wait for her  to go to sleep and then I would arrange them on her bed..all around her.

I remember one night Joanne and I were laying in our beds talking. She was showing me this rubber crab she had gotten from her trip to the beach with her Dad, John. My mom was in the livingroom listening to music on our stereo. Now if you can try to imagine... The stereo was in a huge oak wardrobe and when you were messing with it, the doors had to be open. You couldn't see anything but what was right in front of you or behind you. I don't exactly  remember crawling to the livingroom with Joanne. But I remember my mom's feet going back and   forth..she was dancing. Before I knew it that orange crab went flying across the room...I  swear I didn't see my mom feet for minutes..but I do remember the scream. We ran. I don't  think I have ever run that fast. We JUMPED into bed and pulled the covers over or heads. I think that's how I will always remember my childhood with Joanne. You forget about the arguments. When you look back...all you really care about were those few precious moments that you did things...together..as a team I must say I think Joanne's teen years were more stressful for me than my own. It was a time I look back on now and recall watching Joanne become a beautiful young woman. She was quiet and gentle...half of the time. The rest of the time she  was your typical  teenager fighting the world and everyone in it.   One thing I remember was the ride to school every morning. Joanne would put her make up on in the car. Here was this beautiful nlonde haired, blue eyed, tan, tall, and thin girl literally putting pink everywhere she could think of on her face. I used to tell her she looked like a clown. I will never as long as I live forget the first time I saw Joanne cry because of a guy. She had this huge crush on a guy named Patrick. One morning when I went back to our room afte rmy daily hair pulling from mom to get it all in one very neat ponytail, Joanne was on her bed sobbing. I asked her what was wrong. She said the song on the radio had made her cry.   The Song? "Love Bites" by Def Leppard (It was the 80's okay?). But there was something so tender in Joanne's eyes at that moment that I couldn't possibly imagine in anyone else's eyes. It was the first time I realized my sister wasn't so tough, but that she was in fact human. You would think at about this time Joanne and I would have stopped being children. Well, at least Joanne, but the older we got it seems the crazier we behaved. We LOVED it. The few times mom had errands to run or work to do gave us a chance to turn the music up loud, put on Mom's clothes, and invite every neighborhood kid within a ten mile radius over.          
 
                            
She was beautiful, sweet, funny, intelligent, and popular. I literally modeled everything I did after her. I wanted to be just like her. I was so proud. I showed everyone her picture and talked about her non-stop. She was very important to me. I can't imagine never knowing the beautiful creature that was my big sister. My idol.
 
       
 
 
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