The world around me was a blur of images and sensations. Even language was a sensation. I’d make noises, forming words, because they felt right. “Mama” or “papa” would come tumbling from my mouth and bring feelings of comfort, warmth and security.

The images in front of me brought about the words for hospital and medicine in a number of different languages, not all of them making sense. But the feelings of cold, fear and pain were associated with them. My toddler brain was still in the process of developing those language areas, so the Arabic words everyone spoke around me were more associated with feelings than meanings and definitions.

Words that seemed to evoke the worst feelings I knew were “leukemia” and “radiation” and “dep...

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