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Cathy Kaemmerlen
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Growing up, my sister, Ruth, and I were opposites in many ways. She was the firstborn, reliable, dependable, helpful, outgoing and thoughtful. And I was the middle “creative” child.
Ruth remembers doing most of the chores while our mother made excuses for me. I was too busy, at ballet class, or rehearsing, or creating, or dreaming . . . “Let Babushka (our imaginary sister) do it,” I would say.
Our mother would make our matching clothes, me with the green polka dots and Ruth with the blue. Every picture of me as a child has Ruth in it. Sisters. Sisters. Always sisters. But we were very different . . .
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Ruth is a take charge person. I am too, but in her presence, I acquiesce, sometimes spouting my disagreement but . . .
She became a nurse. I became a modern dancer, choreographer, playwright, actress, and storyteller. Two different paths.
All in all, we are Martha Ziebutski Kaemmerlen’s girls. She was our Marmee and our true bonding inspiration. In her illness and death, my sister and I became closer. After all, we are Kaemmerlen women — strong, opinionated, self-reliant. We take charge. On the cross-stitch sampler my mother made that now resides in my house it says, “Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.”
Ruth and I support each other, love each other, respect each other, and are there for each other as we strive to make a difference and a mark — maybe small, but meaningful, in this world. We are Kaemmerlen women, now multigenerational . . . all belonging to the sisterhood. We have found where we belong. ank you always, Ruth (my Meg) and Martha (my Marmee).
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