Writing is easy, you can always revise. Life is first draft. My parents had planned a family of two children, a boy and a girl, two years apart. My sisters, Carolyn and Joanna, are approximately eight and six years older than me.
Life has a way of deviating from even the best-laid plans.
I have dim memories of being a talkative, happy child until I contracted Scarlet Fever at age 3. I was shy in school and spoke softly. I faded into the background and tried to avoid attention while at the same time, I longed desperately to be pretty, to be smart, and to be liked. In other words, I was a stereotypical teenager of my time. I never achieved those three goals and I married Dave Hockett, the only boy who ever expressed any interest in me while I was in high school.