Out of Her Mind -- Musings on Education and Life

I Saw Only Thirteen Years My mind swims with thoughts of Neesie You would be, what, 26, these days? A full thirteen years older than when I last saw you. You died and left me, my young playmate& friend— sister. Not twins, but closer. I remember you had gained weight --a good sign— You stole my tips & awaited your period & womanhood. Now I try to imagine your kids & mine— but instead I can only see your freckles below soft blue eyes. B. Faulkner 1:20 p.m. 12-11-09 Valdese, NC   She died 13 years ago today!

Nadia before and after diagnosis: always smiling and STILL GROWING! I am not trying to write a sob story. My goal is to NEVER have to do that. My goal is to rewrite my daughter's story, to give her more time for her exposition, time for the rising action that will allow her to learn more about life and herself in the process, time for experiencing life's conflicts (commonly referred to as milestones and experiences). I want the resolution to be a long time coming; I am not interested in penning her epilogue. My dream is that she'll be around to pen mine. I can not change the fact that my daughter was born with cystic fibrosis. Nor would I have chosen not to have her here living her life, as I could have done had I known after conception that she was sick. In many ways, I am SO thankful that her disease was such a shock to me. Had I known prior to her conception that her father and I were both carriers of the cf gene, I would have felt it unethical to have a