You're viewing the readable version of this site. The interactive extras (search, diagrams, read-aloud) need JavaScript and a current browser. Enable JavaScript; if it is already enabled, update your browser.

In loving memory

Angel

My sister. Born and lost on 21 September 1990. A name we chose for her afterward.

angel-mangalapilly, memorial, family, sister

For my sister, whom we never named in time, and so have always called

Angel.

21 September 1990

On the evening she was to be born, my aunt took me to the hospital to wait. The doctor met us with a question I was too young to hold: "Do you want your mother or your sister?" Behind her they were already leading my mother away, and there were tears in her eyes.

My sister did not come home with us. My father took her to be buried, and I never got to see her. We had not yet settled on a name.

So we call her Angel.

Rest, little one. You were here, and you are remembered.