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About Me — Shannon Hancock
Why Simple Questions Are Hard to Answer
I’m really bad at answering questions about myself.
Not because I don’t know who I am, but because nothing about my life fits into a simple, tidy answer.
The questions aren’t difficult. They’re the questions we all ask each other: What do you do for a living? Do you have any siblings? Do you have kids? What are your hobbies?
But the answers are complicated.
1. Do you have any siblings?
I have a brother.
But I also don’t.
He died when he was 27. I was 20.
I didn’t realize my family unit was complicated until I grew up. It was just my family.
Todd was my half-brother, technically. I rarely think about that, and I didn’t grasp the concept at all when I was a kid, even though we had different last names and different biological fathers, and he had two other sisters he sometimes visited.
I guess we were a blended family, although I have never once thought of that term in relation to my life until right now, as I’m writing this at 51 years old.
His life was difficult, and his struggle made our lives difficult at times.
