Pandora's Aquarium: what is courage ? - Pandora's Aquarium

My first christmas

she is 11 soon to be 12

My second birthday

she is 13

I am siting on her lap

playing with farm animals

I am 3

She is 15

we are at the funeral for her mother


I am 4

She is 16


she is the bridesmaid for her older sister


I am the flower girl

who will be indulged with ice cream sundaes


I am 6

She is 18


her bridal party looks like cinderella's fairy tale wedding

my new uncle her prince charming

(she is cinderella to 6 year old me)


and I am again the flower girl

this time in a long white dress

just like the bride's !!!!


(there are fights at her wedding that I will blank out until years later)


Both wedding photos proudly displayed in my parent's living room


A brand new house !!! horses in the barn out back


I am 13

and she is there to help make a christmas

I am 15

and mom is once again hiding at her house

I am 17

and she is afraid of my dad









I am at university

this photo

I am holding her on my lap

my doc says we looked more like siblings

than aunt and neice

She was afraid of my dad

she loved me enough to break silence


she never did tell me her diagnosis

nor did any one in the family

I think she was courageous

both with her husband's cancer

and her own





edited for typos