I celebrate her, not myself.

I am sure that I am not unique in being rather tired of all the celebrations to self lately on the Today show. When Katie left the program, it seemed we had weeks of celebration, showing numerous old cuts from the past years and noting all the change in hairstyles. When Meredith began work as Matt's co-host, we had a huge celebration of her in spite of the fact that she had accomplished nothing yet on the show. Just last week we were subjected to Matt's ten year anniversary celebration, and this week we must look endlessly at the clips from the past fifty years of the Today show. Today we saw Barbara Walters, looking like an Amish woman, and Hugh Downs some forty years ago at Munich.

Actually, I prefer to celebrate some of the lesser known people in my life, especially today. My sister Judy turns sixty-six. Since she is four years older than I, she has always been more like a mother than a sister. I say that because of our being thrust into young adult status when we were children. Our mother was away at her waitress job for much of the day and night, so we were forced to see to ourselves a lot of the time. She and I learned to cook rather early, at least some simple dishes like fudge or grits or oatmeal. We entertained ourselves at night since we had no television with listening to the old radio programs like "The Shadow" and "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon." Mother told us never to open the door of our apartment to anyone at night.

Judy did a great job of protecting me most of the time since I was (and still am) very headstrong. Once, though, when I was five she was playing with her friends on the front step of the apartment house. A garbage truck tried to back over my back since I had fallen off my tricycle in its path in the gravel driveway. Another time, when I was one, Mother told her to watch me and not let me fall off a high bed. I fell off anyway and wore a brace several weeks for a broken collarbone.

We survived these experiences, thankfully. Both of us married good men, have great adult children, and adorable grandchildren. Judy has always been a terrific role model. She loves God with her whole heart and her neighbors as herself. She is the epitomy of Jesus' teaching to do so. Today, big sister, I celebrate you.