Wander Woman

TWOThe Burden of Greatness

The day the doctors told my father he could no longer work was the day he accepted his death sentence. If he had lived a long life and was terminally ill, maybe I could understand his death wish. He was only fifty-nine. He had gone deaf because of a growing brain tumor. The doctors said that the tumor was operable and that he might even be able to hear again. But they insisted he stop working. No matter how I tried to convince him that he still had a good life left to live, I failed. I wanted to shake him and tell him to stand up and fight as he had always taught me to do. The moment he sensed my anger, he rolled over and said he needed to sleep. The routine was the same every night for two weeks prior to his death. ...