Two years ago, just after my 16th birthday, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disorder. I had a flare up so severe it caused a stroke, and I spent weeks in the hospital recovering.
I have had my fair share of hospital stays, but the pain is not in the stay itself. It’s in the thought that my mother, a farm laborer, the one who keeps a roof over my head, can lose her job and everything that she has worked for, while making sure I am able to recuperate. I have seen how that fear consumed my mother, adding another weight to her shoulders.