I think today as I always do about the moment I first saw her — and the feeling is as clear today as it was then. It was a supercharged familiarity. "I know you," I said to myself the instant I glimpsed her face. "Of course. It's you."
And even though she lives in Africa now, and has been independent for years, I still have that feeling about her — and about Claire and Celia, too. There they are, I think, as I watch them grow up and enter their own lives, the children I was meant to have. As unmistakable as blood or water.