I can’t look at Adrienne as I read the final line. “Two-Year Survival: Less than five percent.” My throat constricts as I swallow the lump in it. I feel water rushing to my eyes as I bite the dry skin off my lip. I look at Adrienne. “Well, it didn’t say zero percent. I’ll just be one of the less than five percent who survive.” Adrienne smiles at me.

Adrienne marching in her middle school graduation. © June 2000

Better Off Bald chronicles my sister Adrienne’s 147-day battle with liver cancer; the book also shows how I reared Adrienne from the time she was eight until she died at the age of fifteen. For more information about primary liver cancer, go to Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association.