She Didn’t Fight

She didn’t fight MPS

She danced

She danced with the reality that this disease was twisting and cracking and breaking her cells

She moved through life with acceptance

Only once, we were sitting at the piano together, fingers dancing over the keys

and she stopped with a look of confusion and fear on her face

and I knew that she noticed that she was changing

How many moments of quiet acceptance did she experience that I don’t know about

She didn’t fight

She danced

A guide

A mentor

A light

A quiet acceptance of the surgeries and doctor appointments and feeding tube and seizures

A smile on the hardest days

She entered the world “I’m here”

And exited the world “I’m not”

Annika means beautiful face, and I couldn’t agree more.

Her grayblue eyes, her full lips, her bitty nose, her luxuriant eyebrows

Yes, of course, but also

she beautifully faced everything that came her way.

This is my greatest learning:

to beautifully face life

with eyes wide open, accepting what is, dreaming of what could be

and smiling on the hardest days