My sister A

The other day I made a post about never asking for help from anyone... and my younger sister A texted me, reminding me that she brings me coffee all the time. I felt bad because actually, over the past few months she is probably the only person I have asked for help on a regular basis. She is 17 and definitely has her own set of rather difficult problems, but she never refuses.

When S was first born, she was rather tiny and I think A was probably a little scared of her. She didn't really hold her when she came to visit, unless someone told her to. She had a fairly crappy time over the summer and so did I, so we agreed that we would go for a walk together on Saturday mornings. And so, every Saturday morning A would come to my house, and once S was fed and watered we'd go out for a reasonably long walk. When we got back A would often come up to the flat with us and spend a little time watching bad kids' shows and mucking about. Over time she grew more confident with S, and S grew to be more interesting and interactive.

One Saturday it was raining, so we didn't go out for a walk. While S took her nap in her bouncy chair, I popped to see a neighbour to drop something off. I told A if S woke up and cried to just shout out the front door and I would come back. I got chatting to my friend, and was gone half an hour or more. As I came back up the stairs I was worried I'd walk in to a crying baby and a cross sister at being left with her. Instead I found them practising S's standing up abilities on the play mats, and having a rather good time. Since then I have left S with her auntie A on several occasions, while I went out on hot dates, or popped to the shop to pick up some essentials.

During her Christmas holidays from college, A was here nearly every day. She ran errands to town for me, picked up Costa for me on her way over, looked after S while I did things. On Christmas Day she was nothing short of legendary, helping to prepare dinner, entertaining S while I cooked, helping to clear up after the meal. When she went back to college at the start of this term, I found that I really missed having her around.

These days when A comes through the door S's face lights up. Now that she's used to the hair changing colour, style and length from day to day, she's excited to play with her auntie and associates her with fun and lots of walking practise.

So although I may say I don't ask for help, or receive any, that's a big fat lie. My sister is probably the only person I will regularly ask for help. And she never gets my Costa order wrong. She also has a blog, here, about her exciting life as an international double agent disguised as a teenage A Level student lodging with a family not her own.

One last point I would like to make: I have another sister, Z, who is equally as awesome as A. I have no doubt at all that Z would be here and helpful just as often as A if she could, but she has two jobs and a boyfriend, and she lives three miles away. A lives three streets away so it's easier for her to be here. I know Z wishes she could spend more time with us, and she is just itching to babysit for S... I'm itching for her to do it too!

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