My_Long_Lost_Sister

Koutroff 1 Oliana Koutroff 9:20 am ENG 905 September 13th, 2010 Words: 1,583 Narrative Essay: My Long Lost Sister Any situation is a learning experience. I am the youngest out of three girls; both of my sisters are much older than I am. Even though I am still the baby of the family, I have grown a lot through the past years. As young girls, my mother was so proud and happy to have three beautiful daughters; little did she know that life would cut one of us short. This misfortune made me realize not to concentrate on the bad moments in life, but to focus on what I have and what makes me happy. Antigua- June 3rd, 2002: It was hot and humid outside, and it was the last day of school. Island Academy was in the middle of nowhere, about twenty five minutes away from down town; most of the students, including myself, took the bus to go home. On that particular day I did not feel well, and knowing that we would all be crammed up in the bus, I was already dreading the ride home. My mom would pick me up at the main shopping center, which happened to be down the street from our house. Getting in the car my mom could tell I wasn’t my bubbly self. She asked, “Ca va pas ma Cherie'” meaning, “Is everything all right Honey'” in French. Born and raised in Koutroff 2 France, my first spoken language was French; my mom and I will speak to each other in French most of the time, which throws people off. As I leaned my head on her shoulder, I answered, “Non, ca va pas.” meaning, “No, I’m not all right.” She nodded, started the car, and we were on our way home. My foot not even all the way through the door, I heard the home phone going off. I ran, picked up the phone, and my dad’s voice said “Hello” on the other line. First thing that came to my mind was, “Why does he sound so sad'” My dad never sounded ecstatic on the phone, but this time I could hear sadness in his voice. I was twelve at the time, and when my dad asked for my mom right away, I knew it was out of my control. Aware of the situation, I didn’t ask any questions, I just passed the phone on to my mom who looked worried from my reaction. I felt confused, scared and many emotions and ideas ran through my head. Whatever it was, it made me even more nauseous than I already had been, so I decided to go to my room. Two hours later my mom knocked on my door, I told her to come in and as she walked in, her face looked long and pale. I walked up to her, held her and she started crying. Not sure what was going on, I sat both of us down on my bed. She started telling me that my middle sister was coming to visit because my dad had not been able to take care of her. My mom had explained to me that apparently my sister had become extremely thin; she could barely do anything without fainting. My dad thought it would be best for my mom to decide what to do with her. To me that sounded over exaggerated, but I believed whatever my mom told me. About a week later we found ourselves on our way to the airport. Koutroff 3 Before we knew what we were getting into, here came my sister. As my dad had told my mom and as my mom had told me, my sister looked as if she had not been fed. Her skin was almost yellow and her eyes… I will never forget those eyes; they were empty and dark as a deep well. I walked up to her and kissed her on the cheek; I could feel her bones on my lips. I swear I could have hurt her by flicking her. From the airport, we made our way to the restaurant, which must have been one of the worst nights in my life so far. We were all sitting trying to enjoy our meal but my sister was distracting all of us; us being my mom, my step dad Rick, and me. For no apparent reason my sister decided she wanted to look at my hands. She told me, “Oli, give me your hands, I need to tell you what’s going to happen to you.” My sister had always been playful, she always had some kind of trick to show off, and so I gave her my hands. All she did was look at them and put them down. I giggled and asked her “So what will happen' Is it bad'” She didn’t have any reply to give me; all she did was look at me with her dark, empty eyes and snapped at me. I didn’t get it; I was so annoyed and impatient. All I could think to myself was, “Why is she acting this way'” My parents were clueless to what could be wrong with her and I could tell my mom was uncomfortable. Dinner was over for all of us, so we drove back home. The ride home had us all in a depressed mood, what we would soon learn about my sister’s condition was the beginning to a major heartache. Day after day, week after week, things had not changed for the better. This whole situation only got worse. Although my sister seemed to enjoy herself on the island, my mom and I both knew we had to take her to a doctor who could tell us what was happening to her. Towards the end of July, my mom, sister and I were heading home-back to France. Leaving Rick and Antigua behind, my mom had to put her happiness on hold and perform her duty as a mother. Koutroff 4 What she must have felt like, I could only imagine. I was still young and still didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. From that point on, the airport became a place of hatred to me. After three stops and a couple delays of our flights, the seventeen hours of travelling had made us all exhausted and cranky. The trip still wasn’t over though. Landing in Toulon, a small town in the south east of France, we were greeted by my dad and grand-mother. We then had to drive forty-five minutes to reach my home town called Cavalaire. I thought that when we would arrive at our destination we would all feel relief, and we could all go to sleep; wake up the next day, and things would be alright. I guess relief was not an option. The next day, an appointment was set up with a psychiatrist. We then made our way to the doctor to find out that my sisters’ condition was very serious; he spit out the word “schizophrenia”. All I could remember was a silence in my head. I sat between my mom and sister, glancing at my sister I saw her staring at emptiness; a grin on her face, she laughed out loud. My poor mom, her eyes were full of tears as she asked the doctor, “Why would this happen to her' She was always a normal child, I raised her well… Why her, why us'” As the doctor tried to explain to both my sister and my mom what her treatment will consist of and what hospital she would have to go to, I rushed out of the room. My body was shaking, I felt as if my head was about to burst and my stomach felt as if it was building knots inside of me. I just couldn’t understand how she could have gotten so sick. How could my sister’s mind flip on her from one day to the other' Koutroff 5 San Jose, CA- September 13th, 2010: What was most interesting for me was that as the years went by, I stopped focusing on her. Yes, I have thought about her a lot in the past, and I still think of her every day, and talk to her over the phone from now and then. Since I could never answer my own questions, I stopped worrying and wondering why this happened to our family. When I think of her situation today, I think about what life gives to us and what life takes from us. Sometimes things are meant to happen, but some other times, life throws fits and it teaches us not to worry about what we have no control over. What happened to my sister was and is still today tragic. She is alive and healthy, physically, but if you could only look into her eyes, you too would realize that she is gone inside. Today, I know that I no longer have her by my side and that somewhere, somehow, her soul is trapped. I know that because of her, I am a stronger person and because of this, I love her more every day. All that matters today is that she is well, and although she isn’t cured we are here to support her. I now appreciate the little things much more than I did in the past. I fight to stay positive and content every day, keeping her close to me in my heart.