Mary Trotta    2/6   

Mary Trotta: Photo 2 of 6

4. a place that hurts

Bird in a cage. That is how I feel since I found out four years ago that my husband has leukemia and kidney cancer and that now I have breast cancer. I no longer feel carefree and light, as if I have the whole open sky before me to fly into. The bars on my cage are thin and delicate, and you can hardly see or barely feel that you are constrained in a smaller world, but you are. Every decision, every choice, every move you make is restricted by the knowledge that either of you may die (especially my husband) sooner rather than later. Our wings have been clipped.