Adrienne pops up like a jack-in-the-box. Her shrieks are coherent despite the mask. Thrashing her thin arms in mid-air, she pushes doctors and nurses away as they grab her limbs. She spots John and me.
“SISSSYYY! STOP. MAKE—STOP,” she yells.
Oh my god! What have they done?

Adrienne, Halloween © October 1995

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.