Summary: When my daughter was about five years old, we went browsing in a bookstore in D.C. when we realized that a writer named Daniel Handler was signing books. It took us a while to figure out that Daniel Handler was actually Lemony Snickets, a children's author known for his morbid humor. Lemony Snickets wrote A Series of Unfortunate Events, books about three siblings whose parents die. So, my daughter picked out a book and we stood in line. When I read the signature, Handler had inscribed in the book, "To a future orphan." I looked down at my beautiful, tiny daughter with the words in her hand and became horrified. It was such a terrible thought and such a true statement. Finally, I had to laugh. Of course, in the best of circumstances, my daughter will be a future orphan. Hopefully, it will be when she is at least 50 years old, because I could not imagine leaving her before then. I want to share in the joy of her accomplishments and the heartache of her losses. I want to be there when she finds love in the vast array of places we find it - in her creativity, in her career, in beauty, or with another person. It hurts too much to imagine that I would not be there for her to care for her. It was a thought I could not bear when she had those skinny arms of a five-year old and I held her in my lap. And it's a thought I cannot bear now, even though when we hug, she towers over me. My arms still ache for her, and I want to cry, "I will not leave you orphaned."
