A fragile girl gazes out of her bedroom window dreaming of what it would be like to be someone else, doing the activities other children do such as, skipping rocks, swimming in the pool, or playing a game of kickball with the local kids. Instead, she sits in her bedroom playing with her dolls, alone. The girl has friends but she cannot play with them, she is like a mouse locked in a cage, you see this four-year-old has cancer. A child with cancer does not live a normal life as other children; in turn she must fight to stay alive, continuously hoping to be awaken in the morning to the smell of life, yet barely having the strength to get out of bed. Often she strives to create new memories that could fill up a lifetime, while taking each breath as if it were her last. She is not bitter just confused therefore willing to accept her fate open armed and still having the will power to survive, smiling in the face of death.
Joan Leslie
Joan Miró Museum - Parc Montjuïc
Joan Crawford 1940Mandy is my mothers' niece, and these are the memories of a day in the life of a child with cancer.
Mom often called me to ask if I would do the weekly drive to Morgantown, being the loyal daughter, I said yes. I did not mind the drive; furthermore the trip to the hospital was always entertaining and brought the family girls closer together. There was mom, grandma, aunt Joan, Amanda and myself; in short, we were three generation in a car on a two-hour road adventure. The morning was bright and sunny with beams of light blinding me as I drove to mothers' house. Mom and I would drive to get Mandy and the rest of the gang.
Mandy came running to the...