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by Emily Bradley There are at least 12 different ways to make a grilled cheese sandwich. The right way involves taking two pieces of white Wonder Bread, slathering them with margarine on one side, slapping a piece of Kraft Singles cheese between them, throwing them into a non-stick frying pan, and flipping until golden brown […]

Moving On Up! Regrettably

There it was. My new room. This one had windows. Big windows. It had a bathroom. More importantly a bathroom I was now able to use by myself! They had packed me up and moved me out of the ICU. I had been in the basement for almost two weeks. Now I was on the […]

Dad’s Journal

Written by Mike Bradley Intro by Laura I remember it wasn’t long before I started missing important dates. My end of year school trip date came and went. I was missing exams too. But the first really important date I missed was Father’s Day. It was the first in a long summer filled with holidays […]

No Thank You, Sir, I’m Going Home

A few days had passed, I think. I’ve never been very good with time. I was still waiting to find out when I’d get to go home. I was starting to get stronger. I figured that’s all I needed to do. Get better, go home. This is just a serious but minor setback. That wasn’t […]

“I’m only thirteen!”

I have this memory that I don’t understand. It was like a dream, but it felt so real. I was on a hospital gurney surrounded by faces I didn’t recognize. It was as if I had just woken up and all these people were buzzing around me. They were rushing so fast it felt like […]

I Remember the Moment My Heart Broke

In the days leading up to my end of the year dance show, I no longer felt like myself. The first thing I noticed was that I couldn’t sleep. I would try to arrange my bed and rearrange my bed. I’d add pillows and then remove them. I was constantly struggling to find a position […]

The Climb

It was a dark and stormy night!… lol no it wasn’t. Should it have been? I mean it was a sad hard day, but it was beautiful outside. It was sunny and bright. And sad and hard. It was all of those. There were no storms. In fact, over the 5 months, I can’t remember […]

Year 20: I’m Not Afraid Anymore

This year marks my 20th anniversary of having a heart transplant. When I was a lot younger, probably in my teens, I was at a telethon raising funds for the Heart Institute. I liked doing these telethons and telling my story on TV when I had the chance. Every time I told my story the […]

The Coolest Thing About Organ Donation

It took me almost 17 years to believe it was OK for me to be a transplant recipient. I was always fighting it. I was always trying to prove I was other things first; a regular kid, an artist, a dancer, a student, cool (lol), whatever. I would come up with things and then try […]

What makes you, you?

When I was younger, I used to hate at the beginning of a new school year when the teacher would go around the room asking each student to tell the class “a little about yourself”. This was worse torture to me than showing up for an exam that I didn’t know about. (possibly because I […]