Snippets of Sister

Summer of 1982, she came with my Mom to my graduation. My father had been without a trace for 7 years.

But I was happy as I had ever been. And it was not the first time she filled in a parental role.

Fall of 1960, she dropped me off on my first day at school.

Guardian, mentor, moral leader and career woman, she pushed herself : traversing the East-West pole, just as my Mom and she earlier in North-South migration.

April 29, 75 ” People are roaming the curfewed streets…we must brave the curfew”.

Wherever she was, there was my home, albeit in statelessness or with naturalized citizenship.

The smell of cooked xoi (sticky rice) with thin slices of Chinese sausage on top, from Shirlington to Braddock, from Khai Xuan to Ban Co long stays with me.

The food (sweet potato) the gathering (gio) the memories (free ice cream for being her petit chaperon on dates) – all the same and resided in her DNA ( she even cleaned house for my step mom).

On my first trip back to VN in 2000, she wrote “make sure you don’t trip over, since the sidewalks there are not even as over here” ( Indeed I saw a Western tourist so busy looking at traffic that he tripped up). Advanced warning and frequent watching over for my welfare since the day she had me as her baby brother to practice her motherhood (turns out pretty good seeing the fruits of her bosom. She often got her first son’s name mixed up with mine).

In war or peace. Asia or America, she stayed steadfast, relentless and resilient.

A fall here (front teeth) a fall there (left eye), yet she dusted off then pulled ahead, like a stubborn buffalo sign she was born into: pulling the plow in merciless field, ploughing though life with not a trace of decadence and indulgence.

I owed a big part of my life to her who had more faith in me than I myself. from my first day of school till graduation as shown.

Her ubiquitous and observing glance ever present, because she was adamant and would not accept or allow someone in her circle to even fall short .

Snippets of my standard bearer and the only sister one could ever wish to have.