Café Spanglish
Summer 2015
Conversations with Kristi:
Sisterhood
What is a family? Is it
someone you are related
to by blood or marriage?
Is it the people with
whom you share an
address? Furthermore,
what is its purpose? For
me, family isn’t confined
to the definition in the
Merriam-Webster’s
dictionary. Consider this
instead: family members
are the people with
whom you share a special bond.
As a part of a matriarchal family, I am particularly
close to the women in my life. It is to them I look
for comfort and encouragement. These women are
my sisters, not by blood, but through faith and love.
We are a sisterhood.
I am a divorced mother of three beautiful, well
adjusted children. I am their rock. What they
don’t know is that it wasn’t as easy as it looked to
become the mother they depend on. Many women
are responsible for the person I am today.
Like most young girls, I imitated the actions of my
mother. It started with little things. For instance,
she always crossed her legs gracefully as she
sat in an easy chair. I thought she was beautiful
and feminine, so I copied her. She read books
for pleasure; I read books, too. She put value on
the simple things in life. Today, I prefer picnics to
expensive restaurants and intimate laughter with a
few friends over parties.
Later, I began to notice how she and her sisters
would drink coffee or iced tea and talk about their
lives. Some of their conversations were funny,
while others were serious. Tears were shed. Crying
was not practiced in solitude; it was a time for
their sisterhood to come together and support one
another. Decisions were made at that table. Bonds
were strengthened. Occasionally they would let me
intrude on their tête-à-tête. I was learning serious
8
life lessons about sisterhood around that table,
which is probably why she let me join them in the
first place.
In high school, there is plenty of drama surrounding
the fairer sex. If a girl ever needed a sisterhood,
it was in high school. There were plenty of girls
with a shoulder to cry on and comforting words.
Sometimes we were delicate with our advice,
but there were also times we clearly planned to
avenge our sister’s evildoer! Mostly, there was
laughter; time to share the rites of passage with
our sisters.
With the help of technology, I still have many
of the same women in my circle of friends. As I
move through the seasons of my life, the bonds
I have cultivated with other women continue to
strengthen and grow: ever-expanding concentric
circles of sisterhood, like radiating ripples on a
pond. As women, we all have the same issues:
love, disappointment, sickness, health, marriage,
divorce, children, and jobs. With the help of
our friends, our sisterhood, the journey is much
sweeter.