Relationships of Life

I've always envied people who say that their sisters are their best friends.  Sometimes, though, you just want them to be sisters.

Since I was the middle child I was born a sister, which I still am.  My parents may have died at relatively young ages, but my sister and brother are alive and kicking and so I remain sister to two very different people.  My relationship with my sister (5 years my senior) has been rocky from the start.  She is moody and ungrounded; she never married and that has created a certain amount of bitterness.  We were never close but she lives an hour away from me (as opposed to my brother who lives in a different country) and so we have an ongoing relationship now that is better than I ever would have imagined.  She always believed that my brother and I had it out for her and I guess when we were younger we did (our inside jokes drove her nuts).  My brother (2 years my junior) and I have the same sense of humor - very, very dry - and certain things that my sister did (and still does) drove us both crazy in the same way.  But he is in NY and my sister and I both live in Israel.  I am the only family she has here and that changes things immeasurably.  I don't share much about my feelings with her (some things never change) but she talks to me about her own relationships - with men, with peers, with friends - and I guess we have become friends of sorts.  She is still annoying and moody and her questionable judgment hampers her in many ways but she's my only sister and I think that, at least partially, I am finally fulfilling the role of sister, as well.  It's never too late, I guess.