On March 10th of this year, I finished the second draft of my non-fiction account of living as a healthy sibling to a younger, diabetic brother. Titled Shadow Child, the work explores the affects that the daily demands of diabetes had on my relationships with my brother and parents throughout elementary school, high school and young adulthood. It illuminates the impacts chronic disease has on intra-family relationships; impacts that have lifelong effects and are too often ignored.
While Type 1 Diabetes is the villain of Shadow Child, the experiences and life-lessons contained in the book easily translate to all childhood chronic diseases. Whether your child or sibling is battling diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis, asthma or other chronic illness, the impacts that the disease has on the family is severe.
Through this site, I hope to share my experiences and generate helpful dialogue about the impacts of
disease on healthy siblings.
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