Bubba and "my Jaimie"
Bubba
My brother is eight years younger than me. He was in junior high when I married. As a little boy, he was always into something. We have lots of memories of funny things he did when he was growing up. My mother could begin telling stories about him right now and probably never stop talking for days. He's the only person I know that read the encyclopedia and underlined things just for the fun of learning. When we were growing up, if my father had a business associate visiting from a foreign country over to our house for dinner, my brother was able to entertain all of us with his conversation abilities. He researched the guest's country and new enough interesting facts that there was never a lull in the conversation....he always had plenty of great questions to ask. I remember watching him as an eight year old talk to a perfect stranger about his country's gross national product....about the climate....and the geographic features of his homeland....I'm pretty sure he knows every answer in Trivia Pursuit. If we ever play, he's definitely on my team.
My sister, "My Jaimie"
My sister is eighteen years younger than me. I was a freshman in college when she was born. When she was 18 months old, she was my flower girl in my wedding. When I still lived at home and she was just learning to talk, she called our mother and me "ma-ma". The first six to seven years of her life, we lived in the same town and so I was able to see her often. I sometimes baby sat her for my mom and dad and when I was very lucky, she spent the night with me. I often refer to her as "my Jaimie" because this name was very popular and we know so many "Jaimie's". When she was four years old, I had the great fortune of teaching her to swim. Here's the story....
Many years ago, my husband and I taught swimming lessons during our summer break. We had a nice business partnership.....we had a great plan for how things would work. He was the coach, the person with the swimming credentials and therefore, would be the instructor. My part would be soliciting customers, enrolling students, serving Kool-Aid and cookies to the tired swimmers, and making certificates at the end of the session. Sounds like a great plan, right? Much to my surprise, the night before our very first swimming lessons, my husband, broke his ankle playing softball. You know how you never know what's going to happen to you when you wake up in the morning? Well, little did I know that he would be sitting "beside" the pool, swinging a whistle round-and-round, while sitting in a lounge chair, "telling" me how to teach a kid to swim and I would be the "substitute" teacher, the Kool-aid girl, and the certificate maker! I almost left out the most important part....because I was such a good business partner, I had enrolled about 250 students for us to teach that summer!! Needless to say, by the end of that summer, I was in the best shape of my life!
I started this story to tell you this one......during that summer of swimming lessons....when I had the great pleasure of teaching so many children how to swim, one of those students was my baby sister. It was this summer that I learned how hard it is to teach those that are closest to us. When I wanted the children to experience the feeling of the "buoyancy" of the water, I had no problem gently releasing the other students and letting them bob just a wee bit. But when I had "my Jaimie" in my arms, I did not think I could muster up the courage to let her go. I finally was able to do it, but only after my husband explained to me that she would never learn to swim unless I was able to "let her go". Turns out "letting go" was a great life lesson. I let her go, and she learned to swim. If I say so myself, she's a pretty darn good swimmer, even if she learned from a "substitute" teacher.
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