A to Z Blog Challenge -- S is for My Sister, Michelle

Welcome to Day 19 of this year's A to Z Blog Challenge where --
   

  

S is for my Sister, Michelle

That's my mom holding onto Michelle while we all rode the merry-go-round on Boblo Island in the late 60s.

With three-and-a-half years between us, it wasn't hard to launch a friendship with my sister. It has been the constant heartbeat woven through all the moments of my life.

That's Michelle and me, helping my dad to celebrate his birthday in the mid-70s. The little Michigan girls were now Maritimers, living on Canada's east coast. Through grand moving-house adventures to cozying up for bedtime stories, we've greeted life together -- sharing our dreams, our worries, so many giggles and endless supplies of hugs.

My sister Michelle has been at the scene of dreams-coming-true moments for as long as I've been having them.

When I married Brad, Michelle was there beside me -- here she dances during the reception with my best friend and matron of honor Connie, our Uncle Louie and our Aunt Louise, with our Aunt Loretta in the background at left.

When Michelle married Newt, where would I be, but beside her -- Connie too, of course.

As I mentioned in my 'R' post yesterday, Michelle and my husband Brad were there for me, every step of the way as I did my film degree at Ryerson University in Toronto in the early 90s. Michelle not only acted in several of my student films, she did hair-and-makeup, did craft services (or on-set catering,) provided transportation, turned her car into a trucking dolly shot, helped secure an important location for my fourth-year shoot and did countless production assistant jobs.

Whether it's holding a casual get-together following our mom's art show in Toronto in 2000 (that's Mom at lower left, and my sister at top right) --

 -- or attending my debut book launch in Halifax in 2011 (with Michelle at center, our cousin Julianne at right) --

-- whether it's meeting our teenage heartthrob Leslie McKeown from the Bay City Rollers -- 

-- or strolling through Central Park on our way to see the American Ballet Theatre at Lincoln Center --

So many dreams really have come true for both of us, and who better to savour such sweetness than with my sister?