My Sister Colleen

My big sister hit a landmark birthday today and I wanted to take a second and talk about her

My mother is a saint. Married in her mid-twenties, she was raising five kids under her roof by 33 years of age — three of her own, and two from my dad’s first marriage.

My older sister colleen was well into high school by the time I have full memories of her. I was really blessed that both my older siblings were incredibly kind to their annoying little brother, but Colleen would always go out of her way. From taking me to run errands (“that’s my baby brother - do you think I am old enough to have a 4/5/6/7 year old”) to letting me hang around when she was out with her high school friends. Let’s just say my love for classic 70s rock probably had something to do with the fact I went to parties at the age of 7 that I probably shouldn’t have.

But let’s not linger on that…

Outside of my parents and Nikole, Colleen has been the singular fixture in my life.

She moved to Florida to go to college and never looked back. She got married right out of college, had a couple kids quickly, and thus, I became Uncle Steve at 15. Even at that age - when I was more of an older brother to them than any kind of older authority - she would encourage me to be a part of her kid’s life. Many of my core memories as an older teenager and young adult are from spending time with her kids. I treasure my relationship with her kids — all adults now — and it is a relationship that was only possible because of her.

In the immediate days after college, when I was trying to figure out what it meant to be an adult, I spent probably 50% of my weekends at Colleen’s house, where she let me my own life. Then over the last 25 years, she’s allowed me to call her home my own home any time that I needed - often on the shortest of notice. There have been years of my life (namely 2008 and 2012/2014) where I probably spent more nights in their guest room than in my own home.

But more importantly than all of that, through all of those journeys, she’s always been there - first as big sister, and now as big sister and one of my closest friends. If I was working on a campaign, she jumped in with both feet. In fact, in 2008 she became so integral to our operation that she was essentially another staff person, jumping in to staff events, playing “Office Mom” to our field team, and remaining friends with many of them to this day. And when I’ve been in windows where I was struggling with life, she was always there with a life preserver.

Colleen has juggled all of these responsibilities while also being a mother to three kids of her own, a wife, caretaker for my father after he had his stroke, all while spending 30 years as an emergency room birth and delivery nurse. And today, she is largely the family head coach, maintaining the role she’s played for all of us for as long as she’s been around: the one who watches out for all of us.

Happy Birthday to the best big sister on the planet: Colleen Jones.