Dear Sister Quotes

“teacher”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“I wondered if adults did that, too. Were we all a bunch of hurting children acting out our pains in our actions, instead of through play? Were we repeating difficult experiences and patterns—situations we kept finding ourselves in—to gain mastery?”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.” —Elie Wiesel”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“That is my prayer to God every day: ‘Remove the veils so I might see what is really happening here and not be intoxicated by my stories and my fears.’” —Elizabeth Lesser”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“I wondered if someone looking for help looks an awful lot like someone looking for attention.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“Denial is a well-traveled path of self-preservation.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“dear sister,

my baby girl took my cheeks in her hands and studied my face. i searched her eyes and asked, "what are you looking at baby?"

in her pure, honest voice she answered,

"you mama. sometimes when we're not together, it's hard to remember your face."

i pressed my lips together and swallowed the lump in my throat, thinking, oh honey, sometimes when we're not together it's hard to breathe.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“dear sister, it's July now, the flies stick to my face and arms. i really can't tell if the tickle on my forehead is sweat dripping down from my hairline, or flies landing on my skin. both are persistent. there are so many different kinds—black, white, green, yellow. the green ones hop, the little white ones have scalloped wings that appear to have been dipped in opal dust. they may be the prettiest thing here.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“Life would be so much easier if people were only one thing: good, bad, right, wrong. Tonight, in the glow of the Christmas lights, I tried to make space for those multitudes—to remember that all of their parts were real and valuable, and belonged on the tree.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“It wasn't until I was back in my car that I allowed myself to silently cry into my steering wheel, unable to breathe. Some of it was preemptive grief, knowing our mom would soon be gone, and some of it was a deep heirloom sadness, knowing that what Nikki and I were experiencing was the result of seeds planted long ago, by women hurting, shrinking, suffocating in a society that never helped them.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“I was torn between wanting to to hold her accountable for what I thought were epic fuckups—it should have been her job to keep Nikki safe, I reasoned, desperate to find someone to blame—and knowing that I couldn't reduce Mom to the sum of her mistakes. She was still the mom who showed up at our bedside table when we were sick, saved her money to take us on trips, and was always available to talk—whether it was after a nightmare as a kid, or on the phone from my dorm room at 1 a.m. She showed up for me, every time. That version of her was real, too.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“There were things that were spoken about, and things that weren't. There were ways that we acted in public and ways that we didn't... We were encouraged to make up white lies to get out of uncomfortable social situations, and always present our best selves to teachers, friends, and especially boys, only allowing the uglier parts of our personalities to come out in private.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds

“Nikki and I were not raised to believe that we could face the truth, or that the adults could, either. The grown-ups around us used lies and omissions as a protective shield. Their parents did the same. It was a family trait, stretching back generations.”
― Michelle Horton, Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds