My Big Sister Jamie

Picture Above (Vanessa, Jamie, and Doug)

I (Doug) feel like Jamie and I knew each other in ways that no one else did. I was lucky enough to be her little brother and had the privilege of learning from her as we grew up together. I believe I got my competitiveness directly from being the ball boy at her soccer games and watching her fierce tenacity on the field. I learned from her so well that later in life it even made playing board games together an interesting experience. She was fiercely protective and proud of me at the same time. She was my biggest champion and supporter. She was always there for me. I never had to worry about her being too busy to talk to me.

One time while I was in college, I was in a bad space mentally, and had been blowing off classes for a good portion of the semester. I had been doing my best to conceal everything from my family, but one day Jamie called me and just asked me how things were going. Although I was still not ready to start talking about anything, she immediately picked up that something was not right with me. She told me that if I wasn’t going to tell her what was wrong then she was coming down. At the time she was in New York and I was in Virginia. She got in her car and was at my front door 6 hours later. She spent the weekend and she helped me work a lot of things out. I will never forget that weekend. It meant so much to me, to have my big sister come spend time with me when I was feeling so low.

Jamie was not perfect. Nobody is. We had our share of fights and disagreements, but I know how incredibly lucky I was to have her growing up. Jamie, thank you for teaching me so much and being such an amazing big sister. I love you and always will.

– Douglas O’Brien