Everything She Would Miss

There was an article somewhere about a little girl with a terminal disease. They were giving her a big birthday party and trying to give her the things in life she would miss because she probably wouldn’t make it through the year – a prom and a wedding. She was dressed as a princess.

My first reaction: life isn’t just about being a princess and getting married. If they really wanted to show her what her life would have been like, they would have to throw in some of the not-so-great stuff that makes those other things worth it – yeah, that wouldn’t make a good party for a five-year-old.

But it got me thinking: what would it be like to really show her everything she would miss? Life isn’t just about being a princess, but sometimes it is. Sometimes you feel amazing and special. Sometimes you hurt so bad it feels like it won’t get better. And then it does get better.

If someone had given me a party when I was five, trying to show me all the things my life would be, what would that look like?

Playing ghost-in-the-graveyard at my grandmother’s house, being in the hospital with appendicitis for a week, falling off my bike and getting a scar on my knee, having acne, visiting Niagara Falls (for the attractions, then for the amazing river), getting a college degree that didn’t do much for me, then getting a degree that changed my life, dating a ‘good guy’, then dating a ‘bad boy’, then finding the man who really ‘gets’ me and marrying him, being introduced to deep fried turkey (nobody should die without experiencing this), having a job where the customers wanted to talk to the man in the shop because they assumed he knew more than I did, having a job where I was respected for my skills, finding out my dad was dying, watching my nieces and nephew grow up, snowmobiling at night, snowshoeing at night, getting a great job, getting laid off, being at the controls of an airplane for a few minutes, whitewater rafting, being in a car accident, seeing the most amazing meteor shower…

There is no way to explain how complex and wonderful life is.

Maybe to a five-year-old, being a princess is all of this. Maybe I’m wrong to think she needs to know anything beyond what she already knows.

May her life be full of love and beauty. And yours, too.

 

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