I like to tell young people - you know one in four children die by their own hands - no matter how bad things seem, just wait a day, wait a week. Life will turn around.

You don't know me, but I know about you...I can't make you live longer. I can't stop you from hurting. But I can give you one wish, as someone did for me.

If I can't wait for you at the end of an aisle on your wedding day, I'll wait for you in heaven.

In truth, I don't want to be there. I don't want to see the light go out of my brother's eyes.

The stems stood tall and straight, one series arranged in a single line, the other in a crudely shaped heart, the final one in the shape of the letter U. I love you.

But they can't know how the dark space inside me is growing. I lie to them. I can't get out of the dark hole. 'Peace is here' it whispers.

I wanted to write about the third world and had the opportunity to go live in the trenches, so to speak.