2/4/05

This is the first of three hard posts I’ll be writing over the next few months. They’re not so sad that you don’t want to read them; I think you’ll like them, actually. They’re sad for me though. Sad to write and sad to think about. But writing is what I do when I’m sad. Actually I write from every emotion: grief, betrayal, love, regret. Writing is like an axe for the frozen ocean inside us. Writing puts out our burning fires and melts our icy souls. But what I really came to write about was a little girl.

On this day, seven years ago, Laiken was diagnosed with ALL, acute lymphocytic leukemia. L was ten years old. I didn’t know her yet, but I’d meet her a few years later. And my life would be significantly changed after that. She was a truly joyful girl, and you’d never know she was battling cancer. She was always smiling, always laughing. She loved Taylor Swift and knew all the words to all her songs. More than that, she was always optimistic. She lived all of her days to the fullest extent, not letting her crippling disease keep her down. She taught all of us a lot about life in thirteen years. I would never ever ever look at this as a blessing, but meeting this girl, learning her story, sharing her journey was the biggest blessing I’ve ever received. 

Miss you, sweet girl.