Thoughts About My Sister

I found out last year that my older sister got divorced after about 17 years of marriage.  I felt bad for her.  I too had been divorced, but at the time I was the only one in the family who had ever gone through something like that so my family had a difficult time relating to my new situation.  Dating after the divorce was hard. I had two children at the time that I had to care for as a single mom and their father lived out of state.  During those early years I relied heavily on my mother for assistance and was very thankful for her help. 

Once I met the man that I married seven years ago things in my life changed quite a bit.  We married and he became the person that I relied on more.  He started helping with my children because we were now a family.  We soon had a baby on the way and new house.  A lot was changing during those early days.  Both of the older kids were in school full time and the less I needed my mother's help, the more she seemed to resent the new relationship. 

I often wondered if my family learned something from our falling out and if my sister would benefit from any lessons that might have been learned.  It's difficult to know, but I do know that my sister and her new husband just had a baby of their own. They both have children from previous relationships but I suspect they rely on each other for support just as any new blended family should.