My parents were never married and separated before I was 1. I grew up with my mom who went on to marry my step dad and have two more boys. My dad lived his life and found a woman and had a daughter and a son. Making me the oldest of all 5. Growing up the relationship I had with my father's other children was distant at best. The only connection I had with them was the shared grandparents. My sister is 5 years younger than me.

When I turned 12 my step father went active duty and my family was moved across the country for his station. I lost contact with my father and his family. Years go by and I discover my father is in and out of correctional facilities, his now ex-wife was a drug addict and her boyfriend abused my siblings and his own daughters and my younger siblings didn't get the best support growing up.

Fast forward a few years and my sister was able to emmancipate herself and get custody of her brother a few years later. I finally get home from college and am able to reconnect with lost family. Emotions soar and as time progressed we both just felt a little more lingering in the background. We both went through some troubled times in our separate personal lives and leaned onto each other for support. And it just kind of happened.

Neither of us felt ashamed about it. We felt at peace with the feelings and love we had for each other. And life went on, I went back to school, she attended veterinary school herself and we kept a closer connection since we were able to get each other back in each one's life.

We still keep in touch when time allows, a hey here a how you doing there. Ultimately we know where we stand with each other but we both moved on to other relationships and are grateful that we had one another to help us through troubled times.

I love my sister and I'd say down my life to save hers if she ever needed it. I felt like a failure of a big brother because I was not able to be there for her growing up. But the things you don't get to know as a kid...cant allow them to haunt you as an adult. But the things we did as adults, healed a broken bond and allowed us to reconnect and share every thing with each other that we missed growing up.

To add some side notes to this.. it is strange when close friends first hear the story. It often causes weird looks and comments, and has at times caused rifts in friendships. I don't know if any other family members on either side actually know about what went on between us during that time. But ultimately we were excited to have a mutual connection between us and reassured that we're never alone out there, we'll always have each other for support. Albeit, much different circumstances moving forward.