The book that changed my life was called Red Shoes for Nancy by Marguerite Hamilton. It was about a young girl called Nancy who had lymphohemangioma, an extremely rare and crippling disease affecting the lymph nodes and blood vessels. I’m sure disability activists would find something to be offended at in this story, but I was so relieved that there was a story about someone older than I was who was living with a disability, even though our conditions weren’t the same.
It’s been out of print a long time, so if you find a copy, it usually costs two or three hundred dollars.
I read it over and over for years, and I’d love to get my hands on a copy one day. The story gave me hope for having some kind of life, even though Nancy did pass away at a young age.
Finding Our Voices Together 