Everybody’s Talking About Sisterhood

Sometimes your sisters can be just the help you need to lift your spirits. Last Sunday I was at a low point and the wonderful members of my GaGa Sisterhood lifted my spirits. For the first time since I founded our GaGa Sisterhood in 2003, I was not able to attend our bi-monthly meeting. Paola Gianturco, author of Grandmother Power: A Global Phenonemon was speaking about how grandmothers around the world are becoming activists for so many different causes.

I was recuperating at home after a very stressful week. My husband came down with the flu, which turned into pneumonia. I’d been shuttling him to the doctor for tests and exams everyday. We were even at the ER at midnight one night. As his sole caregiver, I thought I could manage on my own.

But on Friday, I discovered I was not as invincible as I thought. I woke up feeling nauseated and when I got up, I fainted. I fell and bumped my head. When I regained consciousness, I realized I’d broken some ribs. I ended up in the ER for the first time in my life and learned that I’d punctured my lung. I was admitted to the hospital and a few hours later, my husband was too.

There was no way I was going to make it to our GaGa Sisterhood meeting on Sunday and I was heartbroken. I knew the 25 grandmas who were planning to attend the meeting would be disappointed if I cancelled it. One GaGa suggested I “join” the meeting via FaceTime on our iPhones.

At 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, instead of standing before our members and calling the meeting to order, I called my friend’s iPhone. Voila! There was my devoted group of GaGas, passing around LD’s phone so that each one could say hello and wish me a speedy recovery. I was so touched by their outpouring of love I could barely speak.

For the next ninety minutes, I sat in my living room chair watching Paola share stories and crafts from grandmothers around the world. I felt so blessed for the love and support of my caring GaGa Sisterhood.

I share my story of Sisterhood as part of a blog tour today celebrating the release of The Moon Sisters: A Novel by Therese Walsh. She wanted to write about one sister’s quest to find will-o’-the-wisp light, which was her mother’s unfulfilled dream. Also called “foolish fires,” these lights are sometimes seen over wetlands and are thought to lead those who follow them to treasure. Despite the promise, they are never captured and sometimes lead to injury or even death for adventurers who follow them. The metaphor of that fire – that some dreams and goals are impossible to reach, and that hope itself may not be innately good – eventually rooted its way into deeper meaning as the Moon sisters tried to come to terms with real-world dreams and hopes, and with each other, in their strange new world.

Olivia and Jazz Moon are polar opposites: one a dreamy synesthete, able to see sounds and smell sights and the other controlling and reality driven. What will happen when they are plunged into 24/7 togetherness and control is not an option? Will they ever be able to see the world through the other’s eyes and confront the things they fear the most? Death. Suicide. The loss of faith and hope. Will they ultimately believe that life is worth living, despite the lack of promise?

The writing of The Moon Sisters was a five year journey and at times author Therese Walsh felt like it was her own “foolish fire.” But remember, some fires are worth the chase!