Friday, November 6, 2015

Middle Child

Over the years, psychologists have written reams of reports about middle child syndrome, and the problems of growing up with older and younger siblings.  My problem was a little different.

A couple years before I was born, and after several miscarriages, my mother gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  I’ve seen pictures, and beautiful is not an understatement – she was one of the prettiest babies I’ve ever seen.  They named her Dana Lynne.

Everybody and his brother came to see them in the hospital, and someone gave her a cold, which developed into pneumonia.  She died before she ever left the hospital.

When I came along, I was loved and cherished and spoiled rotten, but my mother always continued to mourn that perfect little girl.  It’s hard to compete with someone who died before they ever had a chance to do anything wrong.

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