Safe Journey, Sis

Here's a photo of my sister, Canova (formerly known as Candi) probably from the 80s. I know I have other pix, but this was the only one I could find on the Internet (a poor scan from our fascinating family tree website done by my cousin Frank, the Palm Pilot genius).

She's pictured because I had a final dinner with her in Austin last night. She got tired of it here and is moving back to our home town of Gainesville, Florida (about which I have previously waxed ecstatic here on November 25). She's had a hard time finding a niche, and has followed me to Illinois and now to here, but never got the kind of job security she needed, nor found a reasonable partner. She made some good friends here, but we hardly got to see her, and well, I think she will just be happier back with her childhood friends who still love her so, and a high school friend she is now dating. I am happy for her, because I really want to see her happy again.

She has been losing weight again and looks good and seems to feel good (she's 13 years older than me), so as long as she survives the drive with the "interesting" cats, she should be OK. She has a little house to live in a "gated community" for people over some age, where her best childhood friend lives, and I know she'll enjoy having more space than her tiny one-bedroom in the fancy far-southwest Austin neighborhood had.

I will miss her, especially since I did not see her much in the last 4 years (she and Jeff were like oil and water, making for some tense holidays). I'll hate not having her help for holiday meals and such, but I have Lee and Beccano as helpers now!

An aside, my sister was from my mom's first marriage to a fellow who was a pretty bad alcoholic. They divorced when she was very young and moved in with my grandparents. So, my poor sister was raised by two very unstable Canova women (you are lucky to have avoided a lot of posts about my completely crazed grandmother and overly medicated mother)--it's a wonder she came out able to cope with anything at all. When my mother married my dad, C was 13, and when she tried to go to Sarasota where they were living, my grandmother had a "fit" so she had to go back to "take care of her." So, we never ended up living together when I was young. We'd see her on holidays when she'd sweep in wearing glamorous airline stewardess outfits which really awed my brother (he worshipped her). Later, once we were here in Austin, she did stay with us for over a month a couple of times, and that's the only times we lived together!

Our personalities aren't similar, nor are our interests, but we have similar political views and a shared background that helps us get along OK now that we are adults. And I am glad she still has my dad in her life, since she has no biological family to visit or care for.

I wish her well and hope to drag Lee down to Gainesville to see her if I ever get some time off!