The comforts of hearth and home

On a dining table, in one Sunday afternoon, Michelle sat around two hundred fifty-seven pictures of her childhood. With a tea cup in her right hand, and a photo album in her left, a smile raised upon her face, it was the album of her and her older sister, Mary in Berlin, where times were much easier for both of them. She took a picture out of its place and looked at it closely, a picture of Mary kissing her on the cheek, in front of Berlin’s tan trees. Michelle has never forgotten Berlin, nor its air or trees, especially not the cold surroundings out of her window’s room, Berlin lived inside of her most treasured memories.

She took out picture after picture, memory after memory and everything looked great, every laugh, every joy, the feeling of being a kid, happy free kid playing most of her day in the backyard with Mary and her friend William. At the end of that album laid the end of that part of her life which was captured in the eyes of three children standing in front of a house holding hands, it was the day Michelle and Mary said goodbye to their Berlin, and their friend William. Michelle sat there silently, gazing with teary eyes, and a smile, running her fingers over the three faces. She put a lot of those pictures with the others on the table, and reached for another album that didn’t have many pictures as the last albums had, and you could tell that leaving Berlin certainly has changed everything, you would see a big difference in the way they looked, and you would defiantly know that this pictures have seen hard times, without anyone could tell you that Michelle and Mary had to work every day after school to make a living!

Michelle started discarding a lot of pictures in the beginning of that album, one by one in a quick motion, till she stopped, to look at a big picture of her and Mary in the kitchen, eating homemade pizza, she took it out to read proudly what was written on the back “we are going to make our life worth living. Happily.” It was their first time they cooked something tasted like food, not too salty or too dry, and more importantly without any cuts or burning marks on their hands. Life was starting to get a little easier with all the hard work and effort they were putting into it. A series of “we did it!” pictures made her feel more proudly, on each picture something was written on the back started with “We Did It!” at the first line, and something new they've learnt to do on the second line, things like laundry, new recipes, and better grades, Michelle kept smiling and laughing over them, it wasn’t easy to learn all those stuff but making them with a sense of fun was their only way of survival.

Time seemed to move very quickly as Michelle got busy remembering how she and Mary made it through all that. And before she would reach for another album, she held the empty cold cup of tea in her hand and got up to make another one, thinking maybe her life wouldn’t be the same without going through it with her sister, helping and encouraging each other. With a full warm cup of tea in her right hand, and the last album on her left, Michelle started laughing again over getting IDs and driving licenses pictures, going to collage pictures, graduation pictures, first real job pictures, moving to a new house pictures, Mary’s engagement pictures and a big picture of her and Mary trying her wedding dress for the first time. Spending hours collecting, discarding, laughing and crying over the past, that seems now not that bad after all, she was sitting around one thousand six hundred twenty-two pictures of growing up, made her so happy.

By nightfall Michelle was getting everything ready, hot cup of tea, big bag full of white balloons, painting tape and scissors, and she started to hang and tape group of pictures to the wall, it didn't really till couple weeks ago when Michelle got that idea for her sister thirty-two birthday party, especially when she knew she was going to be an aunt in seven months. It took her six hours to hang all the balloons and the whole pile of pictures she chose earlier. In the morning, Michelle was busy decorating her homemade birthday chocolate cake, Mary’s favorite. At the end of the day, everything looked amazingly exciting in Michelle’s eyes, she changed her clothes before their friends would arrive. Mary was the last one who arrived at the party with her husband, she entered the living room that was filled with friends, memories and lots of love; surprised, and she kept thinking this wasn’t a homemade birthday dinner for three! It took her couple of minutes before she realized what was going on, everyone was singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Her husband kissed her cheek, someone was taking photos, and Michelle was smiling at her with open arms, they hugged for few minutes with teary eyes before their friends broke that moment, blowing into their party horns. And everyone was laughing.    

Mary stood in front of a group of pictures, of their early childhood times, it has been too long since she saw any of her old pictures, she turned and asked Michelle to come and take a photo together in front of them. When it was time for cake, Michelle stood in front of everyone and said “when I was a little, my beloved older sister was little too, we didn’t know much about anything in life, but we have learnt everything together, we made it together, even though we had hard times but these pictures on the walls are evidences that we made it, with joy and laughter together. Mary, you are my family, my best friend and I wouldn’t be who I am without you. Thank you for being my sister. Happy birthday mama.”