Guilt...

...because my son is healthy, happy, inquisitive, mischievous, obstinate, affectionate, capable of all this and more.

...because he hasn't been diagnosed with a condition that is hereditary, incurable, and so debilitating that she will probably die in just a couple of years' time.

...because with the shock and sorrow I feel for that other child's parents, there is also relief and gratitude that it's not my child.

There. Said it. It's selfish, and it's true.

And I can't stop crying for her.

There is nothing that can be said, or done. Nobody can make this better. Pity is as useless as it is unwanted. I do not love that little girl any less, not do I love my boy any more, for knowing she is ill and he isn't.

Nothing lasts. We all die sometime. All we can do is make the most of what we have. And to carry ourselves with strength and grace, as her parents are doing.