Finding Chika

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three,
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six, I’m as clever as clever,
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.
—A. A. Milne

The most precious thing you can give someone is your time, Chika, because you can never get it back. When you don’t think about getting it back, you’ve given it in love.

I learned that from you.

It takes a special strength to take care of a child, Chika, and a whole different strength to admit you cannot.

no matter how a family comes together, and no matter how it comes apart, this is true and will always be true: you cannot lose a child. And we did not lose a child. We were given one.

And she was glorious.

none of us are assured of tomorrow. It’s what we do with today that makes an impact.

not the time she spent battling we lament. It’s the growing up she missed. The time she didn’t get. The future she never saw. That still seems so unfair.

MWEN SE PITIT BONDYE

“I am a child of God.”

What you carry is what defines you. It can be the burden of feeding your family, the responsibility of caring for patients, the good that you feel you must do for others, or the sins that you will not release. Whatever it is, we all carry something, every day.

And the effort we make is our legacy

What we carry defines who we are.