Update. I still haven't quite got used to the way that old blog posts are not
thrown away. The story can be picked up again by anyone who shares your interest. Back in 2002 I wrote a post called
The Gift of Life about a girl conceived in order to give a life-saving transplant to her older sister. I defended the practice, and mentioned some pictures I found when googling the girl's name. I had forgotten all this. Now (er, not exactly
now, see below) Andy Behrens writes:
The Marissa Ayala who drew the pictures that you refer to in your posting The gift of life is not the one who donated bone marrow to her sister.
The young artist is (or was at the time) a middle-school student at the Enric Grau Fontseré primary school in Flix, Spain. It looks like these drawings were done as an assignment for her English class. At any rate, Ayala is a fairly common Spanish surname, and it's not surprising that there's more than one Marissa out there.
Marissa Eve seems to have grown up to be a happy and normal teenager, and the two sisters remain close.
Andy Behrens
Strafford, Vermont
There is a second timeslip to this story. Mr Behrens' email was written on the 11th February.
posted by Natalie at 6:35 PM