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I want to tell you a story about my hero and my inspiration. I want to tell you about my sister Debi. My sister is seven years older than me, she's the first of three girls & I'm the last. My mom told me that when I was born, Debi was so excited that she bragged about me to her fir  st grade class in show & tell that week. My childhood memories of my sister were all good ones.
With us being seven years apart, I spent most of my time with my other sister, Sandi. She's the middle child, two years behind Debi and four years ahead of me. She was the one who ended up fighting with both of us because she was closest in age to us. But because Debi was so much older than me, we never did get into any real fights or arguing. Of course, I was the typical younger bratty sibling at times...I'm sure I annoyed the heck out of her on many occasions. We all grew up in the seventies, when straight long hair, bell bottoms, and choker chains were the big thing. Music played an important part of our lives back then. I remember Saturday mornings when the three of us would get out our big box of 45's, sit on the floor and play them one by one. Even now when I hear a Carpenters or David Cassidy song I remember the three of us singing along like crazy. By the way, nobody in my family can sing...we're terrible, but that didn't really matter to us at the time. Softball played a big part in our family as well. That's how we spent every summer growing up, in the girls softball league in Fontana. I was only about seven when I realized how good Debi could play. She was a catcher and she was the best catcher in the whole town (and I'm not just saying that because she's my sister). I really looked up to Debi as I watched every single game she would play in. She was awesome at catching foul balls...she'd flip her mask off so fast and dive against the backstop to get every one. She made all-stars every year. She was modest though and never bragged (my dad did enough of that, I guess). She just got the job d  one and never said one word about it...that's how she is with everything.
As Debi got into high school, I didn't spend a lot of time with her. She worked at McDonald's after school so she was gone a lot. She never had a problem getting dates either. She was a pretty girl, a lot of people said she looked like the actress Linda Blair at the time. My sister always had the best cars when she was young. Her first was a brown Chevy Nova. I remember sitting in it pretending I was driving it. Sometimes she would take me for a spin, but it's not like we hung out a lot. She graduated from Fontana High School in 1978 and in the fall of that year got a job working for the phone company. During the next few years, I didn't see a lot of her because she spent a lot of time with her future husband, Nick. She would drive to Ontario just about every night to see him. As I got into high school, Debi moved in with Nick at a condo in Fontana. Sometimes I would go visit her but I was a typical teenager and didn't want to spend too much time with my family during those years. I still regret not seeing her more during those days, but I knew she was always there if I needed her. When Debi had her first baby, it was also my first nephew (and only one, for that matter). I was so proud and excited! I remember buying him little Nike tennis shoes when he was born. I still lived at home when she had him in 1986 and I was a year out of high school. Debi would come over a lot with him so I got to see them quite often. He was a crazy little boy! He was a handful...typical baby boy. Debi used to love telling me the following story: she said when her daughter was around the age of two (so it must have been 1991-92), Debi, Nick and the kids went to Las Vegas. Debi was holding her little hand and she noticed a guy that looked like Jon Bon Jovi and some very "important looking people" behind them. She said she passed them and turned around and "Jon" was looking at her baby, smiling. Debi swore to God that it was Jon Bon Jovi himself. Knowing what a huge fan I was, I wanted to slap Debi for not tackling Jon right there and then. But that's not Debi. Always calm, cool and collected. As the years went by Debi and I became closer. We were both adults now and the seven year age difference was not a factor. Our entire family spent every holiday together. Debi got really good at making crafts so Christmas always seemed more special because she was able to make such cute things for gifts. I still sleep every night with the quilt she made two Christmas'ago. I must say, however, that the last three years, we have been the closest than we ever have been. The thing that bonded us was our love for Bon Jovi. It gave us such a common link. Over the past several years Debi became a huge Bon Jovi fan. She was on the internet every day looking at Bon Jovi message boards. I had seen the band in concerts many times, aging back to 1985. I was even at the shooting of two of their videos ("You give love a bad name" and "It's my Life"). But Debi had never seen them in concert. But in December of 2000, both Debi and I were in the Bon Jovi fanclub. They reserved special seating within the first 20 rows for fanclub members. But in order to get good seats, we practically had to camp ou  t the night before tickets went on sale. So we did just that. We got to the Forum in L.A. at about 3am to line up for tickets. Debi was so nervous that we wouldn't get good seats. When we ended up with 3rd row from the stage, we were so excited! We rented a limo for that night and there were six of us that went. Once the concert started, we were in the front row. Even I had never been that close at a Bon Jovi concert. We knew the words to every song and Jon even smiled at me once. You could not get the smiles off either Debi or my face that entire night. The next day on the phone, we both said it was probably the "best night of our lives". Everything was so perfect that night!
Because of our common bond with the love for Bon Jovi music, Debi and I talked more often than ever before. We ended up going to their concert again in April of 2001. We also rented a limo & this time we ended up with 2nd row tickets. Debi wanted her daughter to go with us this time...it was her first concert. Once again, we had a great time (but nothing as great as the first time around because it was so new). Debi has always been a caring and protective older sister. Everyone who knows her probably has received at one time or another a hand-made card from her. She was the first one to call and see how I was doing after I got my wisdom teeth removed. There are also other very personal matters that have occurred in my life where Debi was always there for me. Every time we would talk on the phone, the time just flew by and we'd both have a good laugh. Debi always considers others before herself. Even when she first got sick in early February, she didn't want me to know until my coaching season was over. She didn't want me to be distracted. When my team won league, she was the first to call and congratulate me...and she never told me about how sick she was. My parents ended up telling me the next day. When we spoke on the phone during her stay in the hospital, I remember her saying to me, "this must be so hard on you guys." Here she was just diagnosed with leukemia and she was worried about how we were all handling it. She's one of the most unselfish people I know. So that's my story about my sister. Even though I can still talk to her now, I miss her voice and her smile. I know it will come back someday and I'm keeping the faith that we'll be able to go to another Bon Jovi concert in the future. She's always been there to protect me and I just hope I can do everything in my power to protect her right now and do everything possible to help her get better. You know that saying, "What Would Jesus Do?" ... well, I always ask myself, "What Would Debi Do?" 
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