KHARON

Thanatology Review

Electronic Journal

Content

Volume 15

Number 4 · 2011

Short article


 DÓRA ANETT CZENKE
DÓRA ANETT CZENKE

orvostanhallgató

czenkedora@citromail.hu

Lilla’s Story: A terminally ill child’s vision of life and death

Abstract · For us children represent life, the beginning of life, hope and opportunities. How can a tiny little creature at the very beginning of life be terminally ill? This is a question raised by harsh reality, and the answer is known to us: illness and death do not discriminate, here no rules apply. I would like to present the way a sick child and those near to them experience the child’s illness through the story of a little girl with leukemia, from the beginning to the inevitable end. The radical changes in the life of an at first seemingly totally healthy little girl and her family could be explained by one single word: leukemia. The unexpected cruel diagnosis called for immediate action. The girl’s condition initially stabilised thanks to the therapy, but then it showed a slow but irreversible deterioration. Through Lilla’s story we were provided with an insight into a six-year-old child’s awareness of disease, her vision of death, and her exemplary struggle in her battle for life.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

(Helen Keller)