You were a boy. Life is a mess, that's what Isabelle told me when I decided to have the child, but all we can do is live it.

Cleaning up after themselves was a low priority for Margo and my mother. They had both recovered from cancer scares, failed marriages, and lost hope; in their opinion, dirt could wait.

Those lines in Gillian's face are the most beautiful part about her. They reveal what she's gone through and what she's survived and who exactly she is, deep inside.

Life was worth living, no matter what fate might bring.

For every evil under the sun, There is a remedy, or there is none. If there be one, seek till you find it; If there be none, never mind it. MOTHER GOOSE

Pain was something to get used to, to inure yourself against. I would rather hurt myself than be hurt by someone else, and so I took up this practice with a sense of purpose and without remorse.

It is foolish to cry over things you cannot change

How do we make new and restorative of soul the old pain? How do we learn to carry with grace and humor all that has happened to us?

I already had my bad luck,' she say. 'I had enough to keep me laughing the rest of my life.

RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY! it says in huge block letters.

They'd been attacked by lions, stampeded by elephants, flooded out by rains, made war on by "natives." The tales they told were simply incredible. There they sat on a heavily antimacassared horsehair sofa, two prim and proper ladies in ruffles and lace, telling these stupendous stories over tea.

What I love best bout her is what she been through, I say. When you look in her eyes you know she been where she been, seen what she seen, did what she did. And now she know.