I’ve known Karen since I was 6-years-old. She’s my oldest friend’s mother. She and her sister are very close, so I asked the two to participate in my new photo project on sisterhood. I asked Karen to tell me what sisterhood means to her. Her words:

“My sister Stephanie and me were born almost 9 years apart.   She was born in Japan, and I was a post war baby born in Germany. I am currently 61 and she just turned 53.  She is the one with longer hair. I’ve had to give up longer hair because mine is thin and looks bad on a slowly aging face.  Hers is thick thick thick and still looks great on her.
Since we were born far apart, we did not really grow up together, as she was still practically a baby when I went off to College.  My Mom was pretty protective of “The Baby”, and Steph was not quite as adventurous as I was (but that was probably a good thing in many ways.)  She didn’t drive until she was in her early 20’s and I was toodling around in a little old Morris Minor when I was 14 in the town of Sumter SC.
We started with different personalities, but if you consider we had the same nature and nurture, we have always also had almost identical mannerisms, handwriting, and as time as has gone on, we have become closer and more alike.    We look enough alike (being both tall and blond among other things) that when I moved to Columbia SC I was often mistaken for her by people she knew.  They would come up and talked to me for a few minutes before they realized by the blank look on my face that I was not she.  It was actually pretty hilarious.
With years going by we have become closer and closer.  That has a lot to do with life wising us both up a little, but as I said, when you have the same nature and nurture. I’m seeing it as sort of inevitable.
We are both house proud, live with cats, and cherish porches, family inherited stuff, gardening, TV and art.  And, we both are speed readers…  Just something we have always had in common.  In order to have something to read for more than a day, we need something with 1000 pages.  Our fast page turning has annoyed those around us in the past, who don’t believe we are actually reading.
If I could look into the future I would say we may be known in a few years as the Thompson Sisters.  You know, those sisters who live together, travel together, vacation together, and,…..well you get the picture.
A few years ago neither one of us would have predicted our closeness and it is a wonderful surprise and a very good thing.  Its more than nice to have a sister and if my parents were still with us I would thank them personally.  In my heart, I thank them for the “delightful surprise” (my father’s verbatim description) of my sister’s birth.
Viva sisterhood!”

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Kendrick Brinson is a photographer who lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.  Her column, “Sisterhood,” appears every other Friday.  She is a founding member of LUCEO.