“It’s not fair!” Aislynn cried out.

Carolyn tried to give her daughter a weak smile, “Life is not always fair, but you will survive. You are stronger than you know. I love you Aislynn, remember that." With those final words, her beloved mother slipped from her world.

“No!” Aislynn cried and held onto her motionless hand until the doctors came to lead her away. Tired and numb from the loneliness and sorrow, she sat alone in the waiting room for hours until the social worker showed up to take her away. She was an orphan now, alone and unloved. She would be taken to a new city, one where she had never been before. She no longer had a home; no friends or family, no parents to care for her anymore.

She sat on the bench outside the office in the Lucas County Children's Orphanage, while she awaited whatever was to happen to her. They had stopped briefly at her house to collect some of her things. She had only been allowed to take a small suitcase with her, so now all that she owned in the world was sitting at her feet, packed hastily into a two foot by two foot navy blue floral suitcase. She looked at the luggage and remembered the last time she had used it.

Her parents had taken her on a camping trip. It had been a happy time, one filled with adventures as she and her father had explored the woods around them. He had taught her how to fish and they had even sung songs by the campfire as they roasted marshmallows. When all was done and the night was quiet, they had sat close together, talking. It had been then that they had told her as much as they had known about her birth parents.

The tears began to fall once again down her cheeks as she heard her parents’ words in her head.

***