My daughter Kassidy enters the double digits today, born ten years ago. It is so nice to see her, healthy, active, and physically able to do what she wants. That is not how it started out, with a complicated pregnancy, her mother on bed rest for months just trying to keep her alive, and then after her birth, Kassidy spent three months in hospital, on oxygen for 89 days. You can read her story of the complicated pregnancy and birth on her website, Kassidy’s Story.

I did not finish the story after the birth. It was therapeutic to write at the time. We were busy with so much, spending so much time at the hospital, and looking after the rest of the family, though her sister became an excellent cook when she tired of the monotony of my famous dish of chicken thighs, potatoes and carrots.

The prognosis for most of Kassidy’s early life was bleak. We were warned that if she lived, she could be sickly, require oxygen at home, would have asthma or other lung conditions, or could be severely physically disabled.

She made it through all that, and her five bouts of pneumonia. She has no lingering lung or physical health issues, and is very bright, an excellent speller and grammarian, and loves nature and being in her garden.

Kassidy is a testament to perseverance in the face of adversity, and to keep up hope, to keep trying, to be optimistic, and to recall the Stockdale Paradox.