The Other Daughter

As many of you have probably noticed, Hilary is conspicuously absent from most of the pictures I post. There are several reasons for this --

1. She is 16 (aren't all sixteen year olds anti-social?)
2. She is an introvert and a loner.
3 She's not home most evenings -- she has a job at our local grocery store.
4. When she's not working or at school, she spends every spare moment drawing or writing.

Because she didn't hear for the first five plus years of her life, Hilary is a very visual kid and has always been an observer more than a participant. Being deaf and an introvert also makes for a child who lives in her own world most of the time. Hilary has a vivid imagination from which she has created her own series of characters and stories. All of her stories involve imaginary animals (never people) and they are a bit "out there". Although her stories aren't my genre of reading -- they are really quite good. You will always find Hilary with a pencil and a notebook in her hand no matter where she goes. Always drawing or writing ... always creating.

When I think of Hilary as an adult, I conjure up this image of a crooked old house, with a crooked roof and a hundred cats and dogs running all around with Hilary sitting at her desk, hair in disarray, diet Dr. Pepper cans scattered all about, as she pounds out a story on her computer one finger at a time. But, as long as she is happy and, more importantly, self-supportive -- then I'm happy.

So there you have it ... the mystery of the "other daughter" who rarely shows her face. I snapped some pictures of her the other night after she got home from work. See, she really does live with us!