What Chronically Healthy People Don’t Know

When I was growing up, the only person I knew who was sick all the time was my aunt. She had epilepsy and lupus and people talked in hushed tones around her. My grandfather often looked nervous around my aunt as if she might break. She never got to finish high school and didn’t get a license to drive until she was well into adulthood. She only had a job for a short time and to me seemed to be forever dependent on everyone else. I loved my aunt, even liked her, but I didn’t want to be her.

I grew up believing that being sick was something I could control, that it was a failing on my…