What is a sister?

Last Sunday, DSU’s Epsilon Alpha Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta returned to the campus after a five year suspension.  Many of the young ladies on campus never thought they’d get their opportunity to become part of such a strong, service-oriented sisterhood, but for 71 girls, their dream came true at 7:10 p.m. on April 10^th. 

Spending the day with my old and new Sorors got me to thinking.  I reflected on the 11 women I had the pleasure of crossing the burning sands with (Alfrica Edmonds, Joy Arnold-Russell, Carmelita Taylor, Jeneen Robinson, Pamela Anthony, Agnes Jones, Veronica (Ronnie) Wilson Pitts, Sherry Agnew Wilson, Lori Whitehurst (RIP), Shelia Wright, Melanie Byrd) and how important these women have become in my life.  For example, I strive to uphold my commitment to service because of my line sisters (LS) Pam and Melanie.  Because of what they’ve committed themselves to as an academician and attorney [respectively], my own commitment to others is reaffirmed.  I work every day to be a good mother and wife because of my LS Carmelita and admire how she silently soars above the clouds and makes this fulltime job with required overtime look so easy.  And I giggle every time I think about Ronnie and how she said she’d never have children and how other people’s kids used to drive her batty…but look at her now, a mother and superior educator! And I only wish I could be like Joy and step out on faith as she did to open her own business and roll with the punches when they came her way.  Those are just a few of the examples of how my sorority sisters inspire me to do my very best.  I could go on forever and pull a story about each of these ladies from pledge days but the blog would indeed become a book!

I also reflected on the relationship that two of my students (now my Sorors) have developed with each other.  I have been blessed to witness their growth and development as young women and am so proud to be able to call them my sisters.  I also know that as sisters in their own families, they already embodied the spirit of the 22 Founders of Delta Sigma Theta and just needed the opportunity to be initiated into the fold of women who have such high regard for life, self, family, equality and community so that they could do their part to make this world a little greater on a grander scale. 

The same sentiment is applied to my own sister Brenda.  I think she’s amazing.  I may not tell her every day but I think she knows it.  She is a strong mother who has weathered many storms, an independent business women and a wife who has given everything to make it work.  I love to see her laugh and let her hair down from time to time and am so blessed to have such a great big sister. 

And how my life has been made greater because of my sister-friends!  You know those ladies. The ones you’ve clicked with for one reason or another or who clicked with you and 10 or 20 years later you find yourself standing next to them in a chapel on your wedding day or road-tripping with them, or sharing all the highs and lows of life.  Well I’ve got some great ones; Nayada (we claim each other as God sisters because I know he connected us at the right time), Bianca, Sybil and I've been fortunate to meet a few more women I'm proud to call sister: Ava, Claire and Shana.  Now those are some women that I know I wouldn’t have been able to make it through life without; always there when you need them.  In my corner through thick and thin and genuinely concerned about me when I needed them most.  I love you ladies with all my heart.

On April 10^th when I got home from campus after the initiation ceremony and the step show, I went into my daughter’s room and lay next to her and my heart wept because Tyler doesn’t have a sister by birth.  I wondered to myself, if someday she’d have great sister-friends like I have.  One’s who would pay your mortgage if you were short.  Travel across the country in a flash when there was a death in the family, or tell you like it is straight with no chaser, even when you didn’t want to hear it.  I wondered if I’d be able to call my own daughter my Soror (my husband often has her throwing up a pinky and hollering Skee-Wee, but I can see the Delta twinkle her eyes) and if she’d have a life-long bond with her sorority sisters and I thought about how I could nurture her relationship with her two God sisters, Nailah and Jailyn and imagined them navigating college, relationships and careers together and I did with my own God sister.

I often hear stories of young women who are not fortunate enough to have caring sisters…whether by blood or by initiation into a sisterhood of some sort.  I am so glad that I don’t have to do this thing called life without having sisters of all kinds - - my sisters, my Sorors, my sister-friends - -you’ve made me the women I am and I am so glad to call you my sister.