JANE...

Dearest Fatty Pig,

I can't believe you are turning 40! Where do all the years go I wonder! There are so many amazing memories that you and I have made together. I don't believe there's a more pure love than the love two sisters share. Don't get me wrong, I know you could have slapped me on numerous occasions and probably did as I recall! It doesn't change a thing though, we'll always be as 'tight as ticks' another 40 years from now. I recall giving you the last scrapings of the peanut butter jar in the middle of Nyanga on a birthday not far off 20 years ago now! That's love if ever I saw it, especially for me. It's not often I give over my culinary needs for anything let alone on a starvation diet in the deepest wilds of Africa. Remember the stew those folk in the camper van offered us, how desparate we were!! Oh happy day, rolling in the dirt trying to find the flattest, rock free piece of ground to pitch our 2 inch square tent. I still have echoes of you complaining of your bum bruise you got with buster guts polo pony! It was your nightly chant for many a long moon. Those were the days huh, footloose and fancy free. I owe you a huge debt of gratitude, you took a risk going with me and you gave me a relationship that we may never have had and a chance to see you for who you are. I look back in awe, you helped me slow down and realise the fun is in the journey and not the destination. How much I would have missed without you and what a poorer person I would be. I love you so much it's nigh on impossible to even dent the surface. Maybe that's what the next forty years are for. I've watched you grow and share your love with a beautiful husband and bring the most loved children into this world. My heart is full of awe for the love you have with your family. You are a tight bond and can weather every storm. We've gone through losses that have brought us closer and given me strength to go forward when I couldn't have alone. You alone got my attention to look at my life and turn it around. I would still be drinking if not for your love and persistence with me. I remember a week in Brussels where you spent the entire time talking me into getting help. That changed my life and I don't know that Icould have heard it from anyone else. We may look different ( though of course we're both blond!!) and god knows we come at things from different directions but how cool is that - to have a sister is beyond words but to have a confident and best friend just takes the biscuit. I love you from the tips of my beautiful toes to my golden locks and I wish this day and everyday forward fills you up from the inside out and brings you joy and happiness no matter the changing scenery.
Pooh Patty, it's you and me against the world - eat cake and go to town.

Your adoring and adorable POExxxxxxx