My Sister is Married

Stacey is married. After 27 years of being a daughter of the Leong household, after 19 years of being my sister, after about 7 years of courtship with her husband - all of these numbers still in the midst of increasing.

I was never close to my sister while growing up. She gave me the early impression of a temperamental, unloving sister whose job is to tell on me to my parents and get me in trouble all the time. I stuck close to my eldest sister, and it felt as if I would never be able to get along with her.

However, my sister is more than all that, and I was never mature enough to understand or appreciate her until I was in my late teens. She worked really hard and gave only her best in everything - her work, her spiritual walk in Christ, and the family. She was involved in all matters while I conveniently took the backseat and kept distant from all that is troublesome. Even though I'm in university, she still fussed over me and kept reminding me not to stress myself so. Every time I scored well in my national exams, she was always proud of me, going as far as to praise me to her friends and rewarding me despite having had poorer results than me back in her school days. I was much more privileged than she was in her childhood, but she never resented me at all.

Whenever I pass by her vacant room now, I'm hit over and over again by the reality that she has indeed left the nest. I'm not alone - I have Mom and Dad. But when I try to identify these feelings welling up inside me, I recognise them as loneliness. I miss my sister, and it'll take some time getting used to her absence.

I already foresaw this months ago when I contemplated about how people will eventually leave one by one, but it would be a mistake to say I was prepared mentally and emotionally. As the wedding procession neared the end and the couple made their thank you speeches, I had a lump forming at the back of my throat and my eyes were burning. I was trying so hard to suppress the emotions, but when my sister started with "I will miss home" and thanked me for the times we shared interests in cooking, YouTube videos and music, there was nothing else I could do from crying there and then. It was a good thing that I was blocked by a pillar, because I wouldn't want her to see me in that state.

I miss her, but I'm happy for her. There's nothing I can do that will ever be enough to repay her for what she has done for me - I can only do my best to fulfil her absence at home to the best of my ability in place of her and my eldest sister Stella. She's walked on ahead to the next stage in life as I watch her back, just like in that picture.

Dear Stacey, I pray that your marriage will be a blissful one.