you’ll never believe it: if we weren’t sisters we wouldn’t be friends
Who says you have to be close to your siblings? These women candidly discuss family taboos...
It’s a surprising confession, but one that’s more common than you’d think. Thanks to their wildly different hobbies, values and outlook on life, these two sets of sisters say they wouldn’t be friends if they weren’t bonded by blood...
‘We’re just so different’
Aimee Bradley loves her older sister Lianne White dearly – but would ‘never choose to hang out with her’.
‘That sounds horrible, doesn’t it?’ the 33-year-old mum says. ‘Growing up, I was extroverted, had loads of friends and dated boys. My sister never did that. She’d just read books – six a day at the weekend. She’s a Mills & Boon fan and you’d know when she was reading that as you’d hear giggles from the bedroom. She’s also into gaming and owns every games console ever made.’
Lianne, 38, who has muscular dystrophy and diabetes, says, ‘We’re just so different. She’s five years younger than me and loves partying. We just have different hobbies.’
Aimee says the pair, who live a couple of roads away from one another in havant, hampshire, are ‘chalk and cheese’. ‘Lianne’s just come back from a medieval re-enactment weekend with the guy she’s dating,’ she says. ‘he was in a full 1600s suit of armour!’
Former beauty therapist Aimee is married to husband davin, 34, and they have a four-year-old daughter, Autumn, while Lianne ‘just wants to be on her own with the dog’. The pair have grown closer since the death of their mother, Glynis, when Aimee was just 25. Aimee says, ‘Before mum died, she said, “Aimee, just have patience with her.” I have a child now, so I know what it’s like to need patience.’
Lianne adds, ‘Aimee doesn’t always think about other people’s feelings. And she finds it annoying I never answer my phone.’ despite their differences, Aimee is happy they are siblings. ‘I love her. We’ve always been there for each other,’ she says.
Lianne adds, ‘Aimee helps me with different things. I help mostly with babysitting. Autumn is a lot better behaved for me than Aimee. We don’t get on all of the time – but most of it.’
‘Sounds horrible, doesn’t it?’