Little Sister

[randy_byers]

I'm not sure I'd ever seen this picture before it flashed across the screen in a slideshow at my niece's wedding rehearsal dinner last summer. That's my niece sitting in my lap at my brother's wedding at the parental home in Portland in 1983. As too often in pictures of me, I look completely wasted, but at least pleasantly so in this one. She looks like an elf child. I was the best man at the wedding, and she was supposed to be the flower girl. She chickened out at the last minute. I'm still in uniform, but she's looking pretty Mickey Mouse.

This was the year I lived with my parents along with my sister and niece while I finished my Bachelors degree and my sister worked on her Masters. One evening my niece asked if I'd be her big brother, since she didn't have a brother or sister. I said I'd be happy to be her big brother.

I'm pretty happy to have a copy of this photo now, which I just remembered to ask for last week.