Advice from a small town girl

My older sister read some of my columns on The Record’s website yesterday. We were at my father’s house celebrating his 87th birthday, along with my brother-in-law’s 61st and my niece’s 19th. It was a nice gathering, with few of the little family fissures that seem to be part of our lives these days. Well, forever, if you must know. I have noticed that we’re a much less contentious lot than we were when my mother was alive, but that observation requires more study.

At any rate, I hovered around in the background, waiting for my sister to laugh or comment or something. No response. At all. At t...