Tonight, my sister Rebecca, and Jack, her boyfriend of several years, got engaged. He got on one knee at Grand Central Station here in New York City and opened the ring box. When Rebecca was a kid, she and Mom visited NYC and when they went into Grand Central, my sister burst into tears at the beauty of it. Jack knew that story; now my sister’s got two great “I cried in Grand Central” stories to tell. When Jack asked her, she said, famously:
“Are you doing this right now? Are you doing this? Are you doing this right now?”
Congratulations, turtledoves. This is just the beginning.
When we saw the Christmas trees lined up at Whole Foods yesterday, my younger sister Rebecca went for it. Her No. 1 impulse — her immediate desire — was to dive into the middle of the free-range, organic, mini-pine forest and smile like that.
Admirable things about my sister:
1. she is a full-time film industry professional working outside of Hollywood
2. she is one half of the coolest couple in Chicago (yes, I do wanna make a bet)
3. she is side-splittingly funny
4. she be pretty n’schtuff
When she jumped into the holiday forest, she made that eight-year-old kid smile and I half-laughed, half-barked, “Wait! Oh, lord, wait!” and went for my phone to take her picture. My sister Rebecca can make my heart ache with joy like no one else. What can I say? She’s my kid sister. I look at her with the wonder of a child who gets a new sibling, even though we’re both in our thirties, now. We are both in our thirties now. Talk about wonder.
I’m on the Quilty set today, filming the latest season. Rebecca is the producer of the show. Over lunch, I asked her what she was thinking when she jumped in the trees.
“They were just asking to be jumped into,” she said. “There was this perfect entrance. And I mean, the smell.” She blinked her eyes, considered again her motivations, and said with finality: “I had to jump in. It was Christmas in there.”
