Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - March 14, 2025

What a great gift

While I am the older sister, Gaila and I are only 16 months apart. Our babyhood years must have been difficult for the folks as it was almost as if they had twins. Family life on a farm probably pushes people closer together or drives them apart. For Gaila and me, it was the former, so we grew up almost finishing each other’s sentences. We played together, shared chicken pox and measles, supported each other during the angsty teenage years, and started exploring the wider world together while in college.

But what began as just another shared experience ultimately separated us. Studying Spanish as part of my undergraduate degree led me to me enjoying the campus parties thrown by students from Latin America. When I graduated, a Peace Corps position allowed me to explore the region. Gaila followed me and some of our common friends. We both even met our husbands-to-be - except mine came from Wichita and Gaila's from La Paz, Bolivia. When she moved there in 1983, I knew our days of intense sister time would then be few and far between.

But one of her conditions for marriage was that she could travel to the States every year. The only time that didn't happen was the summer of 1992, when she and I were both expecting autumn babies. Still, with both of us raising two girls, working, housekeeping, and trying to see our parents, brother, and other relatives and friends as much as possible, our time together was always too short.

But Latinos tend to be very family-oriented, so I wasn't surprised when Gaila mentioned recently that hubby Humberto has been telling her, "You have to spend some time with your sister." Husband Art and I picked her up in Kansas City on January 11 - her 70th birthday and the start of our eight weeks together.

We have long talked about being able to go through the photos, documents, and scrapbooks I inherited after our parents died, and we did some of that - although at times it became a bit tedious and emotionally exhausting. Gaila also helped me go through all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, closets, and the storage area under the steps. We must have taken at least four car-trunks-full of items to a local thrift shop. She thought I should unload more, but she was very patient with me as I told stories about this item or that item that I decided to keep. "Well, if it has a story, it's hard to get rid of," she told me, laughing.

There was a rather practical side to our time together as well. She had been contemplating cataract surgery for several years, and this seemed like a good time. Art was our chauffeur when we traveled to the center in Topeka, and I became her caregiver, which was really "demanding," what with putting three kinds of drops in her eyes several times a day as the schedule dictated.

Art chauffeured us other places, too, when the snow was deeper than we cared to navigate, the cold was too intense, or we just chose to pamper ourselves. On some of the frosty, frigid days, we just stayed at home, enjoying homemade chicken noodle soup, reading, and watching movies. It all felt a bit like those days of our childhood when winter kept us isolated on the farm.

We also had days of playing intensely.

We went to the Kansas State Capitol for the unveiling of a mural by a local artist. At the Beach Museum on campus, we enjoyed the "In Bloom" exhibit, done in collaboration with the 150th anniversary of the K-State Gardens. A favorite was a quilt of irises because we both love quilts and those happy flowers that graced our farm in the spring. Gaila had never seen the Flint Hills Discovery Center. She too found the museum's exhibits awe-inspiring, from the history of Indigenous peoples to the present day, and the "immersive" theater, highlighting the last stands of tall-grass prairie in the world.

K-State's Morse Department of Archives and Special Collections in K-State's library also caught our attention. Gaila was pleased to see one of the featured cookbooks in the "Sabores de Casa: Latin American Cuisines" exhibit was of Bolivian foods. I was interested in the one about Ecuadorean cuisine as it was the site of my Peace Corps days.

The Aluminum Show at McCain Auditorium entertained us with a quirky display of "creatures" made of flexible aluminum-foil "tubes" that interacted with the audience. We enjoyed four other shows - the Peking Acrobats, the St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra, Mnozil Brass, and the Shamrock Tenors. Gaila's favorite was the performance by the Irish lads, but I wasn't sure if it was their music or the fact they were so easy on the eyes.

But I didn't keep her entirely to myself. We connected with our brother and his kids. The Grimwoods, old friends from our hometown of Burns, visited. Gaila lunched several times with college chum Stacey and her hubby. Friend Bryce made us a nice homemade meal in Lindsborg. She joined a group of my friends and former journalism colleagues at a lunch, some "gal pals" for a Valentine-themed meal, and my Silver Creek Beneficiary Club friends.

Two months sounds long, but it went by too quickly. Gaila left for daughter Larisa and son-in-law Keenan's home in Kansas City on Saturday. After time there, she and Humberto will be with their daughter Gabriela's family in Virginia before returning to Bolivia in May.

I hated to see her go. Still, it was such a great gift to be able to spend quality time again with my little sister.