At the start of the school year, Kimberly Burwick and I sat down to talk about our friendship, our hopes, and the judgments parents navigate when raising children with a complex illness. She discusses the value of developing support systems and the importance of ensuring our kids are not forgotten. Kimberly Burwick is an educator and the author of six collections of poetry, including Brightword and Out Beyond the Land. She recently published Human School, an essay about the parallels between her father's polio and her child's Long COVID: https://anotherchicagomagazine.net/2026/01/20/human-school-by-kimberly-burwick/ Produced by NAST Studios.