3 facts - 1 fiction

My grandpa ate eye-balls of the swine. 

I would open the door of the cooler, and find a bowl of eye-balls staring back at me. Eye-lashes still attached. I stared back at them, sometimes daring them to blink back.

He believed they would heal his worsening eye-sight. He would ask my mum to boil them with Chinese herbs in a pork bone broth. My brave mum had no choice but to face this weekly task of making this magic potion. 

My grandpa lived until he was 93 years old. His eye-sight was perfect. I know this because he could still see me, even though I believed I was invisible to everyone else in my family. 

 

1 fact - 3 fictions

On 14 November 2008, her family (mother Lily, brother Chad, and cat Mr. Buttons) and friends (all ten of them who truly matter, and also because Chad knows them by name) gathered around her brother's pad. She pretended to be surprised. They ate a lot, drank too much, wished her happy 30th birthday, sang her a song, danced to 90's music, nibbled on cheese and kissed her cheeks.

She didn't say one word. No one suspected. She didn't say good-bye.

When people started to leave, she said "Thank you for coming", "See you soon" and "I'll catch you later". When she left her mother and Chad, she hugged them both tightly and whispered into their hair "I love you both".

Exactly ten days ago, America welcomed her first African-American President.