[child] In which The Child makes me proud; very, very proud

One of my editorial policies on this blog is not to talk about the troubles of others without their explicit permission. I spend enough time narrating my cancer, I don't need to drag the business of my friends and family in as well. But sometimes their troubles intersect mine. Those intersections can be occasionally brutal. Last Friday, for example, my father was in the ER at the same time I was in the infusion center for chemotherapy. That made for a deeply miserable morning across our entire family. As it happens, he is fine, and I am whatever I am on chemo, but no worse than expected to be sure. This past Friday morning, those things were not obvious.

the_child carries a heavy load these days. In addition to the usual assortment of issues any teen aged girl weathers, she is working hard to come to terms with the meaning of the circumstances of her birth and her adoption. She is coping with the hideous stress of my illness, now over four and half years on, and the high likelihood of my early death. Like all of us, she has to manage her own, individual inner demons as well. And finally, she is significantly learning disabled, as I have mentioned a few times here before. This causes numerous issues in school, not the least of which is a fantastically elongated homework load given the length of time it takes her to process and comprehend written text.

Her grandmother, tillyjane (a/k/a my mom), has been a hero of the revolution for spending up to five and six afternoons or evenings a week providing the_child with mentoring and structured guidance on homework. This is a job I have done in the past, but simply cannot do this year, due to chemotherapy destroying both my cognitive capacity and my ability to stay awake. the_child herself fusses like any teen, but underneath it all is quite diligent and dedicated in the face of great challenges.

Yesterday she brought home her first major grade report. Her high school runs on a lesson block schedule rather than a semester schedule. Every three to four weeks, they switch main lessons, and focus on that through the block. So this was her first significant high school academic evaluation, the equivalent of an end of semester grade in a key subject.

She got an A- for the lesson block in Civics. With a very positive write-up from her teacher.

I am proud of her. Very, very proud of her. A daunting amount of work and stress and effort has paid in ways that exceeded even my highest expectations.

Some things just need to be said: You go, kid.