About “For Jessica”

For Jessica

When I wrote “For Jessica” in the summer of 2010, my beloved daughter, who has a neurological disease called tuberous sclerosis, had just been diagnosed with a degenerative spinal cord disorder.

I wanted to tell my friends what was happening but I didn’t want to keep bursting into tears. So I wrote “For Jessica” on my blog and clicked “post.”

And then something unexpected happened. A friend linked to it on Facebook, and another friend linked to it on Twitter, and pretty soon people who weren’t my friends were reading it. Hundreds of people, then thousands of people, then tens of thousands of people.

They said they understood. Or if they didn’t understand, they wanted to hold my hand anyway. Or say a prayer for us or send flowers to Jessica.

I’m still astonished that so many people cared so much for one little girl and her mother.

People have repeatedly asked for this essay in book form, so here it is.