Three memories from a mystery person...

(1.) I recall a battery-operated toy - chickens pecking at rice that I received for my fourth birthday; a dead snake that appeared to come back to life as it slithered off the end of the stick I was carrying; and the time the teacher slapped my hand with a ruler because she said another girl had copied off my paper during a test.

(2.) Among my most vivid memories and pleasurable memories, though, is one of a day at the beach, the sand so hot you had to dance your way to the refreshingly cold water and waves. It was on the shore, where we rented a house for the summer with my grandmother, and it was the start of my lifelong love of the ocean, because as Bruce Springsteen sings in “Jersey Girl,” “…down the shore everything’s all right.”

(3.) My most indelible memory, however, is not of long, pleasant days at the beach, but of a day that would change my family’s life forever. I was about six, and my mother was riding home on her bicycle from visiting someone in town, with my brother, then two, in a seat on the back. Somehow he got his foot caught in the spokes, causing the bike to fall over. In the moment, the spill seemed unremarkable. My mother got herself and my brother back on the bike and headed home. But that would be the last untroubled day my family would have for many years.

That night my brother was in pain, crying and unable to sleep. Within a few days, his left thigh had become grotesquely swollen and his veins blue and bulging. His leg looked like the leg of an old man. There was no improvement in the days that followed. Our family doctor didn’t know what was wrong, though he saw my brother and examined his leg several times over the next couple of weeks. It wasn’t a break. It wasn’t a sprain. Maybe a torn ligament? No one really knew. But my brother was in constant pain, and he limped as he walked. My mother was distraught because she felt so responsible. She believed that it was cancer and that he would die.

(Note: This person’s parents then began a journey to find out what was wrong, using all their resources to do so. Eventually, when this person was 8 ½ years old, the family left their home and moved to the United States in search of a cure for their son. It took another ten years or so before the family finally learned what was wrong with him. He had an inoperable lymphatic tumor in his leg. Perhaps the bike accident assaulted the tumor, bringing it out of its dormant stage – no one can say for sure. At age 18, the brother’s leg was amputated to the top of his thigh. The owner of the memories was in the last year of college, but took a leave of absence to be available to the brother and the family.)

Please select from the choices below what you believe to be this person's worldview. Cast your vote in the poll to the right. Thank you!

1. I take care of others. (6%)

2. I miss the obvious. (31%)

3. Chicken soup is for the soul. (0%)

4. Life moves me. (61%)

(By the way, when the owner of these memories is revealed... and unless you have been living on another planet, you will know of him or her.)

This poll is now closed and the correct answer is in blue. Thank you for voting!