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"For Nora, drawing has been closely related to writing. Her drawings have often included captions or balloons." (Bob)
"The 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 face drawings are some of Nora's earliest efforts (three years old): a face for each day of the five day stays in the hospital to receive chemotherapy. On the first day of each round she would draw all five faces and we would tape them up over her bed. At the end of each day she chose a sticker and put it on the numbered face that represented the day we had behind us." (Bob)
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| Drawing of Plants Growing |
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"When she began to write we embraced and encouraged her "best guess" spelling. She discovered that, yes, basically everyone could read what she wrote (though sometimes she had to help us)." (Bob)
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| Airplane Illustration by Nora |
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"Like most kids, Nora lives, and now writes, in the moment. I don’t know what mechanism is at work, but she loved her time in Seattle. She only remembers what was good about it. She had close friends at the Ronald McDonald House, and we went to the zoo and such when we could.
"She just does not remember the awful times. The trip to Seattle in 1998 Nora refers to as a ’vacation.’ And though there was a week when she was in a great deal of pain, the story about her scar is what she’s written about it. She’s proud of her scars.
"CT scans are a regular event, but she is only now beginning to understand what they are for." (Bob)
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| Nora's personal dictionary for C. |
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| Nora's personal dictionary for D. |
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| Nora's personal dictionary for G. |
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| Nora's personal dictionary for V. |
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"Because sometimes Nora insisted on ’correct’ spellings, particularly for spelling friends’ or extended family member’s names, we put together a personal dictionary out of an old, fat, loose-leaf binder with several blank pages for each letter of the alphabet. She drew pictures to correspond with ’correct’ spellings, we taped in photographs of friends and family, and cut out pictures from magazines when the urge struck (a car, a basket)." (Bob)
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"I like to introduce Nora to new things and enjoy the activity alongside her. I admit, I was the one who introduced the idea of getting gerbils for Nora’s birthday. Before we got the gerbils, we checked out books from the library and researched their needs and habits." (Andrea talking about Hazel and Hershey).
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| Nora playing the guitar. |
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| Nora and her cat, Arrow |
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