About Sheldon

by Cassie Diessel

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I think, looking back on my life, the most happy moments weren't until after I was eleven years old. Now some may think this is due to a lack of memory, or even a selective memory, but I have a much more simple reason: On the twenty third of March, 1997, after being an only child for just over eleven years, my baby brother, Sheldon, was born at around four in the morning. I can remember almost all of the details like it was yesterday, even though it was in fact well over five years ago. I can remember Ronnie, my step father waking me up, and the dazed feeling I got as I realised it was still dark. My mind clouded as he told me 'it's time' and that we had to go to the hospital, as I tried to process what was about to happen. We piled mum's things in the car, and as we drove to the now closed down Mercy hospital of Albury, I can clearly remember two things. One was the glowing sensation I had, knowing that I had a sibling just hours away, the other was how amazed I was, that out of Mum, Ronnie and I, Mum was the calmest, and I couldn't understand why she wasn't afraid, I mean, hell, I was, and I wasn't even having the baby!