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Article: Emily and Shannon
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 17, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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This is the story of a little girl who had cancer and died, and
a little girl who had cancer and lived. They were sisters, though
they never met.
The cancers that afflicted them were different in nature,
course, treatment and outcome. Parents are 10 times as likely to
have a child killed by lightning as they are to have two children
with unrelated cancers; for these particular types of cancer the
odds are even greater. But for the girls' mother and father, the
chances became 100 percent: They lived every parent's nightmare not
once, but twice.
Who among us has not feared that the very worst could somehow
single out our child? Who does not suffer a twinge as a toddler
wanders toward a ...