Jaime's Birthday

Julia is only six years old when the world is turned inside out by the death of her brother, Jaime. For the girl who spoke with the flowers, played games with the animals, and understood the whispers of the trees, the woods go suddenly and utterly silent.Decades pass. Julia has seen her own death coming, and spends her final front porch afternoons narrating her own story as a final farewell to the world she is leaving behind, and the granddaughter sitting at her feet.If more people were like her – the child who stared tragedy in the face and persevered; the adolescent who conquered anger and hatred within herself; the woman who reconciled the ugliness of humanity with the beauty – what a wonderful world it would be.