I'm the youngest of three. When I was born my brother was 13 and my sister was 7. I always looked up to my brother even though I realized he had his faults. You could say that we were very close due to the fact that we worked together on an almost daily basis from the time I was 10 until about age 22. That's when he came back to the farm and he and dad farmed together for the next several years. That's not to say that we didn't have disagreements but there was never anything that would cause us to become enemies. He died from a major heart attack in 2004. I miss not being able to talk to him an awful lot. Same with my dad who died in 2001.

My sister married when I was 11 so from that point on I was an "only child." I don't know if you could say she and I were ever "close" but we love each other and there's no hard feelings between us. She's been in bad health for several years (3 back surgeries) and was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She will be 73 in June. She had been living independently until recently but that was rapidly coming to an end. During this ice escapade she had a fall and broke her humerus near her shoulder. Her daughter got her into the hospital and from there they are transferring her to a facility where she can get the care she needs. Needless to say, she's not the sister I grew up with. Dementia in any form is a terrible disease.