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THE NARRATIVE ARC
My Daughter’s Diagnosis Left Me Feeling Guilty
Now I diagnose other people’s children
The report arrived in my inbox, and as I skimmed the conclusions, my heart sank. Dyslexia. Dysgraphia. Dyscalculia. My 12-year-old daughter had difficulties with all three: reading, writing, and math. That was unexpected. We’d realized school was hard for her but hadn’t guessed the full extent.
I returned to the start of the report and read through. Pages and pages of test results, a long conclusion, and even longer recommendations.
The words blurred with my own repeated thought: “How did we miss this? How did we miss this for so many years?”
And I knew exactly whose fault it was.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the love locks people put on bridges. Couples etch padlocks with their names, attach them to public fences or bridges, and then throw the key into the river below as a romantic gesture. One bridge, Pont Des Arts bridge in Paris, was a popular place to attach locks, but in 2014, two-and-a-half meters of the bridge’s railings collapsed under the weight. Several other spots around the world are also feeling the strain of their love lock collections.
