Summary

“Dear Sister” (16) is written in the form of a letter to a character named Jackie from a first-person narrator who is unnamed at first. The narrator admits she has struggled with how to start the letter. She explains that she and her three sisters share a father, Wallace “Stet” Brown, with Jackie, and that he died of a stroke the previous week.

According to what the narrator knows, Stet had not seen Jackie since she was a baby. The narrator says all four sisters are currently at “Grandma’s house” (17). She has been chosen to write the letter because she is straightforward and tactful. She says that everyone except Grandma called their father “Stet” because he wore a Stetson in high school, and that none of the sisters had a fulfilling relationship with him.

The narrator goes on to say that Kimba is...