My Fifth Sister: Jenny

For some reason, Jenny’s birth is memorable to me. Maybe because it was around Christmas. I was eleven coming up to twelve and Katey was nine. Ever crafty, Katey was in the midst of creating more and more stuff as her abilities grew. Ever trying to be crafty and keep up with Katey, I also created…even though I had just discovered that writing stories was waymore interesting than paper, glitter, markers, and attempting to draw when I have no ability to do so. Every the good mother, mom tried to be supportive in our interests. She never did figure out the writing thing I became so passionate about, but crafts were easy enough. That year she had purchased us some kind of garland stuff we had never seen before or since. We got it in sparkly blue. Honestly, we never did figure out exactly how it was supposed to be used (Pinterest had yet to be invented…), but we did figure out it made great hair bows! And so that is how we spent the morning of Jenny’s birth, proudly making all our sisters sparkling blue hair bows to wear on our visit to the hospital. I think we even made Jenny one.

 

Maybe that’s why Jenny also grew up to be artistic. More likely it’s because she’s Katey’s twin nine years removed. Really. Reddish hair, pale complexion, Ogilvie nose. She even chose the exact some outfit combos from the hand-me-downs Katey had worn five or six years previously. (That was a little frightening. Today Jenny is a “fashionista”, so don’t tell her how awful a few of those combos were…) She would grow to love music, try a million creative things, and be very passionately loyal to her friends. All very similar to Katey.

 

Of course, Jenny is her own person. She’s the first one who would tell you that, too. She has her own interests, does things her own way, makes her own choices. In that way, I suppose she’s just another Sturm sister. She can sew beautifully. (I have nearly two bins full of sizes 3 and 4 dresses/outfits that are waiting for Ellyson to grow into.) She also thrives in her piano playing.  Now that she is thirty, she is taking up a new hobby: cake decorating. I’m sure she’ll excel at that, too.

 

For, yes, she is thirty. I don’t think she is overly excited about it. Abby had all kinds of ideas on how to celebrate, but settled with a rather calm night out with all the sisters. (Since she will turn 30 in less than two years, she had to be cautious about pay-back.) But I think she had a good celebration. And I hope she discovers that being 30 is pretty great. Way better than the 20s…and so much younger than the 40s…

 

Happy Birthday, Jenny!

Jenny - 1992