i love you because…

Although my sister and I were always close, it was not until our mother passed away that we began to appreciate the friendship we had.  In my eyes, my sister has always been the most successful person, the most inspiring person and to this day remains the most influential person in my life.

I remember our mother always saying…’love your sister…there is nothing like sisters…you need to stick together’.  Those words will always be with me.

It was while I was at uni that I found myself struggling to find the perfect gift for my sister.  I wanted something that would be meaningful, that she did not already have and that would not cost me the earth.  I realised I was searching for something that I would never find.

I was searching for a gift that would show her how much I loved her…with that, I created my first ‘i love you because…’

we always stick together.

I remember that moment when I realised the gift, I wanted to get for my sister was not something I could buy off the shelf.  It was not something I could find in stores, nor was it something I could outsource and have someone make it for me.  I would need to invest my time, not my dollars if I was to create the perfect gift.  And that is what I did.

I went about gathering things that reminded me of my sister and times we had shared.  Some photos, some letters we had written when I first moved away (this was pre-Facebook days), I played some music we had danced to and I grabbed myself a drink.  I sat on the loungeroom floor with my things all spread out.  It was such an emotional experience.  One that made me feel so close to her, albeit 300km away.

As I sat and wrote my ‘i love you because…’ notes, one thing became evidently clear.  Every reason I wrote, every memory I had, every connection we shared…I knew that my sister and I would always stick together.

~ I dedicate this to my sister – Patricia Oliver