This weekend my niece Vanessa got married.  She is 23 and as her father gave her away (and cried) and I sniffled with her mother Adele, the vision that popped into my mind was of little “Nessie” when she was 4…telling me about the pink dragon who lived under her bed and how they went flying at night. Strange the memories which come and how time changes us all.  Today she’s a grown woman – self possessed and strong, and now a wife – soon to be moving to New York to continue her education – environmental law – she wants to make the companies which pollute our world accountable.  She wants most of all, to change the world because of her older sister.

Cristina suffers extreme severe allergies and asthma, even food and water poisons her. Every moment that she has been with us is a gift we don’t take for granted.  Any words that exist cannot remotely describe watching someone you love go into respiratory arrest.  At 26, Cristina is still recovering from a stroke brought on by a brain cyst.  It is inoperable although the doctors say it is benign.  The cause of the cyst is her body’s reaction to the pollution and poisons it cannot deal with in any other way and cannot get rid of.  We are hopeful that the new medicine will stave off any more strokes. 

Unsurprisingly, Cristina is an activist for environmental change.  She lives in LA – in a crime ridden area because she believes that only by being part of it all, she can make a difference.  In order to make her sister’s wedding without her oxygen tank her doctor prescribed a powerful drug so that she could walk down the isle as her sister’s maid of honor.