23 years ago today I was in the 5th grade and had just sat down to eat my lunch when my uncle walked into the cafeteria to tell me my mom was on her way to the hospital to have the baby.

We were all expecting a boy, my dad had already picked a name for his son, Angel. When surprise surprise he’s got another daughter. Disappointed? I don’t think so. Surprised? Definitely. Since they hadn’t planned on another girl I don’t think they gave much thought to girls names, but since my dad had his heart set on an Angel they gave that to my sister. She’s lucky they didn’t want to name their boy after my dad or grandfather because she could’ve ended up a Manuela or something!

With a 10 year gap between us, she and I are as different as night is to day, yet we are one in the same. As her boyfriend says quite often about us Birds of a feather. That is us alright. Since there is such a large age difference, we didn’t really grow up together. We both had our own childhood with our parents at different times. We never went to school together. And thankfully, we were never teenagers together.

We haven’t always gotten along. We didn’t always see eye to eye on a lot of things. And for awhile I think the only thing we had in common was the fact that we had the same parents. Thankfully, that has changed. She’s not only my sister, but my neighbor, my little one’s Godmother, my drinking buddy, my shopping partner, my text message pal and my babysitter, but she’s also my best friend and I couldn’t imagine my ife without her.

Happy Birthday, Angel. I love you.

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