The World’s Greatest Niester
What’s A Niester?
I may not be the only person with someone I refer to as a niester. Even if you have one or know someone who does, I have the best one. Sorry if you may know one of them that isn’t the world’s best.
My niester is the reason why you read anything I write on Medium. She’s the one that gave me purpose in writing. She is the one that said, “you’re a good writer,” and it meant something to me.
I first encountered my niester four years ago. I received a message on Facebook messenger out of the blue. I didn’t recognize the name, but the Messenger message said, “Lori would like to connect with you on Messenger.”
I didn’t recognize the name of the photo. I hadn’t yet read her message before looking at her page. I didn’t recognize any mutual friends, mutual schools, or workplaces. She was from Candor, NY, weirdly, a place I’d always thought that I must visit but never had.
I looked at pictures, names, and posts, but nothing familiar. Her face had some familiarity that I couldn’t put my finger on. I thought she was kind of cute.
‘Oh boy,’ I thought. ‘Did Buh-Buh (my best friend) get someone pregnant back in the day, and now, she’s trying to find him through me?’ No, it wasn’t about the Buhbster.
I finally read the message after about five minutes of digging around. I read the letter and then was stunned. All I could do for the next 10 minutes was walk around repeating the words “Oh fuck” while staring wide-eyed at my phone.
The message was from a woman named Lori, born in Elmira, NY, in 1969 and was put up for adoption. She asked if I knew of anyone in my family who had given a child up for adoption around that time. She had found a possible match with an aunt and a cousin through Ancestry.com.
She nailed it. She had most of the info right. Thus begins a very long story that is yet to come, but I’m working on it.
She was only four and a half years younger than me. Her kids were older than mine. Yet she was closer in age to me than anyone else in my family, including any cousins, other nieces, or nephews.
After clearing the okay with my sister, the birth mom, I contacted her about a week later. Lori and I met a few months later, and I dubbed her my niester. She was too young to be a niece, she isn’t a sister, but she’s closer in age to me than my sisters. Her kids were also older than mine.
Lori and I became close very quickly. Not much time goes by without one of us shooting a text to the other. Our family relationship is unique. We’ve ridden on a road that has been long, winding, uphill at times, downhill at others, and flat somewhere in between.
My niester, Lori, is the most significant person to enter my life since my children were born. I first heard from her in April 2018. I say the same about the day I first heard from her as I say about the birth of my kids. Every day since has been better.
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