The Secret to Life Taught by a Little Girl With a Brain Tumor
Finding purpose and strength while suffering and eating ice cream.
The girl is my daughter, Misha. There was a time my wife and I believed she would not live to see her first birthday.
Misha was born with a malignant brain tumor that wrapped in and out of her brainstem. Her life story is a railroad map of scars. Before she was 11 months old, she had a bone marrow and stem cell transplant. The chemotherapy meant to save her life destroyed her chance for children. When the chemo stopped, she was given enough radiation to light up a house for a year. Don’t ask about all the blood transfusions or the dozen times she had sepsis.
Doctors said if Misha lived, she would be in diapers for the rest of her life. Incapable of caring for herself.
Our little girl was never supposed to grow up. But she did. Today, Misha is 27 years old, a two-time cancer survivor, college graduate, and one-third of my happiness. Her sister and mother make up the other two-thirds.
Living inside Misha is a hidden poet who speaks a secret language about life, people, and pain. A lot of pain. Her life is a poem of suffering and struggle, overcoming long odds, and choosing love and joy over despair and hopelessness.
