[Auburn Annie]

I come by my organizational skills honestly. As some of you know I was a librarian by profession, so categorizing and sorting are ingrained. But I also inherited much of it from my parents, who had 9 of us. When you're trying to keep 9 kids' appointments, school meetings, sports events, lunches and laundry from becoming overwhelming you have to be organized to keep your sanity. And it only gets worse when we hit our teens and were coming and going to friends' houses. I used to tell my mother she needed an airline arrival and departure board. Mind you, we learned early to be independent (also arrive on time for dinner or tough luck) and manage our own affairs. Calling to make my own appointments killed me because I was terrifically shy and hated talking on the phone.

Obviously I survived, so much so that not only do I take care of my own issues but those of a disabled sister in Atlanta. I had to call in the local PD last week when no one could reach her for days. I knew she was almost out of her medications (her 80-year-old doctor is undergoing chemo himself) and had started going into withdrawal. As it turned out, one phone was off-hook and she'd forgotten she'd turned off her cellphone at the movies and never turned it on again. The fact that she lives alone and loses the ability to walk intermittently due to a bad disk AND has blacked out at least once due to low blood sugar and concussed herself means I can't assume it's just an off-hook phone. Unfortunately, as I learned when she was flooded in September along with much of Atlanta, her neighbors are less than helpful ("tell her to call 911.") Sigh. She lives in chaos which costs her in anxiety, money, and energy. I went down in 2002 to get her paperwork ready for her disability hearing and spent a week organizing 200 files of papers that covered the dining room table and floor, in cartons. Can't wait until she's ready to sell the house and move back to NY.

When I was younger I was the "loan arranger", the unofficial savings and loan among my siblings, lending funds for textbooks and supplies and the occasional semester. Even though I've been out of work since October 2008 I still provide help where I can to tide over those who are down to a fiver and need the 15-year-old washer fixed. I keep my eye out for buy-one-get-one-free groceries and stockpile a family food pantry of sorts with canned soups and meats, noodles, rice, beans, veggies and whatever else I can manage (my homemade chili goes a long way.) Walmart sells those Hormel Compleats for under $2 each and I grab a half dozen to ship to Atlanta when I can; they're shelf stable and just the right size for Mary who has the appetite of a bird.

I'm not the only one, of course. One brother looks after our youngest sister who has Asperger's and other developmental problems. Sometimes we kid each other about who has the bigger crisis of the week. Lately we've been neck and neck. Calgon take me away!!!