Stories of Sisterhood

[KSUViolet06]

My chapter moved into a new house in fall of 2005.

We were pretty excited to be in our new house, mainly because of the dramatic staircase in the foyer. It was really beautiful, but it was also hardwood and slippery.

That summer was hectic because all of our House Tours party plans were made for our old house. So we were working twice as hard during Refinement Week to basically put together a whole new party to fit the new house.

This particular day, we'd all been up since 8am trying to work on the line up for House Tours. We were trying to figure out how to arrange girls on the top of the staircase.

Background: I have CP, so I am extremely accident prone.

My Big asked if I wanted to just stand on the bottom, but I'm stubborn, so I insisted that I could line up at the top like everyone else. I made it up to the top just fine. But while I was standing up there, I sneezed, slipped and tumbled all the way down (that's 25 hardwood stairs folks)!

When I hit the bottom, I was so shocked that I didn't move, but I remember mumbling that I was fine. Over their screams of "Oh My God", I guess no one heard me. Before I could attempt to get up, my Big and 2 other girls were like "DON'T MOVE". They picked me up, put me in a car, and drove me to the ER.

I figured that the rest of the girls would stay behind and finish working on recruitment since classes started the next day. Nope. Everybody got in their cars behind us and came to the hospital too.

I was in the ER pretty much all day waiting, getting x-rays and making sure nothing was broken and was pretty sore and miserable. They all stayed as long as they could (before the hospital told some of them to leave). It was nice to know that I had them to hold my hand and take my mind off of the annoyance and misery of being in the ER. I remeber a nurse telling me "Wow, those girls sure do care alot about you to stay here all day."

I ended up with a few stitches and sprains-nothing major. The Dr said it could've been WAY worse.

I was released later at night and they ALL came with my Big to come pick me up. Over the next couple of days, I had plenty of phone calls, texts, and dorm visits to see how I was doing.

When you talk about sisterhood, that's one of the days that sticks out in my mnd.

[Hopeful_Bubbles]

I love stories like these! Makes me glad I've decided to throw my hand in in recruitment.

[AGDee]

I have so many stories because every time I have gone through a difficult time in my life, my sisters have been there for me. From the time my dad had a heart attack while I was in college to sisters getting me through two divorces. My sisters were so helpful and supportive last year while my mom was in the hospital. When I've sent out messages on a listserv for recommendations for personal care aides from my mom, I have always had offers of help. When I was very sick and needed surgery, which meant 8 weeks off work at 60% of my pay, as a single mom, I received a SIS grant from our Foundation which helped pay the mortgage. So, my sisters have always been there for me.

There is one time I was especially touched as a collegian. One of our sisters suddenly had to support herself completely because her father was laid off. She was working almost 40 hours a week and going to school full time and thought she was going to have to terminate her membership because she couldn't afford the dues. Well, we weren't having that, so we each chipped in a few dollars every month (our dues were only $24 back then, but heck, minimum wage was $3.35 an hour!) and paid her dues for the duration of that school year. She was able to work enough over the summer to cover things better the next year and resumed paying her own dues. I was really touched by how the whole chapter reached out to her during her tough time.