Sibling’s pride: My sister’s path to finding herself
Sibling’s pride: My sister’s path to finding herself 
I am so proud of my sister Katrin. Today marks the beginning of her blogging career. Not only is it remarkable that she does this based out of Germany where the older than 30 folks are highly suspect of social media (unfortunately), but she does so against all odds.
Please check out her blog here. Especially my German speaking friends will have a great time with it.
In so many ways Katrin had it a lot tougher than me. After all, I went out of the country well over twenty years ago and she stayed at home. She chose to take over the old house we grew up in and she took care of my mom and grandma until both of their deaths a couple of years ago.
Dad did not treat her well at all growing up. He let her know about that in no uncertain terms. She had been terrified of him (well, we all were) until the day we evicted him from our lives and home. She did suffer from the same nonsense that had haunted me for well over 7 years after that event. While I could literally enjoy and reflect upon this from a distance and find out who I really was and what I am here for, she did not have such a chance. Her path to finding herself and what she wanted and what her purpose was took quite a while longer.
In the small community that she lived in she was often compared to dad and the burden she put on herself mentally was even worse and eventually really got to her. She got out of this dilemma all by herself with help from her dearest family and friends (especially her “Klemptner”). One day just a few years ago she made a choice: It was the day she chose to be Katrin.
Piece by piece and day by day she clawed her way up and found her “why”. When her and I get together, no matter how much time goes by and we have not seen each other, we can pick up terrific conversations about the meaning of life and how to get people to realize how great a time it is to be alive. We have both been in deep and dark places where a little empathy and compassion meant everything and money meant very little. Ironically, the worst times of our lives had become also some of the best times.
Today she is engaged in church, school and will take up any cause for folks who are less privileged than others. She never seizes to amaze me and inspires me every day.
Now she does something I really did not expect: She is giving back to people who may be stuck just like we once were. Her blog is designed for curious folks who want to ponder what else life has in stow for them.
Wow! Sister, I am really proud of you! You have come such a long way. Please do me a favor and check out her web blog under http://www.katrinschisanowski.de/ (especially if you can read and understand German).
Ralf
