Copyrighted ~ By Diane Beisner

Monarch wings whispered in the wind, "Larissa�look at me! Larissa�
look at me!" The golden-orange splashed against ebony caught her eye.
The flying flower in the sky captivated Larissa as it fluttered thru
her Grandma Karen's garden. Fascinated, she followed the monarch as
it danced along the border of yellow and purple painted Johnny Jump
Ups and the rainbow hues of the freshly bloomed Primrose. Spring was
alive and in the air that lovely May day. The butterfly gently glided
in and out of the brilliant, red tulips and sweet scented hyacinths
before it alighted on the blushing pink blossoms of a milkweed plant.
Larissa rested in the softness of the grass beside the milkweed; her
full attention focused on the beauty of the delicate winged creature.

As Larissa studied the monarch, she noticed a large, yellow, white and
black striped caterpillar hanging upside down from the underneath side
of one of the plant's leaves. Its skin had begun to split at the
bottom and its body was swollen. Larissa's Grandma quietly walked up
behind her, rested a hand lightly on her shoulder, and asked, "What
have you found Larissa?"

"Oh Grandma, look! I was watching a butterfly when I spotted this
caterpillar. What's wrong with it? Is it hurt or is it sick like me?"

"The caterpillar isn't sick or hurt," Grandma Karen responded. "Its
body is preparing to become a butterfly. It's shedding its skin. It's
transforming from larva to pupa"

"Larva�Pupa� What's that Grandma", she questioned again.

"The larva is what the caterpillar is called, and the pupa is the
caterpillar as it's developing and changing into a butterfly." Grandma
Karen told her.

"How much time will it take for the caterpillar to become a butterfly?" she asked.

"It will become a beautiful monarch soon, in less than two weeks. Now come
inside the house. It's time for your medicine and you need to rest.
You have a long day at the hospital tomorrow."

Larissa took one last glimpse at the caterpillar as she struggled to her feet.
"I am very tired," she thought. She always seemed to be tired. Her body was
changing just like the caterpillar only she was sick. She had a disease called
cancer.

As Larissa went inside, she thought about the changing caterpillar, and
she thought about the changes in her as well. Ever since the doctor
told her parents and her that she had cancer five and a half years ago,
she had seen many changes. Her mother had taken her to the doctor after
she had complained of terrible headaches and "seeing two of everything"�
nothing had been the same since. The cancer in her brain had changed
everything. She could no longer run with golden-blonde hair blowing in
the wind because the surgery and medicine, called chemotherapy, had
caused her to have a difficult time walking and running. It also
caused her hair to fall out. When her hair grew back, the once golden
locks were replaced with beautiful chestnut ones, but it wasn't long
until those fell out too. Again and again, just as her hair would
begin to grow, she would have another dose of chemotherapy, and
out it would come. She was unable to go to school and see her friends
because the medicine made it easier for her to catch a cold or the
flu. She went from feeling well to being sick all the time. She lost
weight because she no longer felt like eating. Sometimes she had to
take medicine that made her body swell just like the caterpillar's body
had become swollen. Tomorrow she would receive more medicine that would
bring more changes to her ten-year-old body.

It had been over a week since Larissa had last seen the caterpillar because
chemotherapy had made her too sick to venture outside. With Grandma Karen
guiding her, Larissa made her way into the garden. She couldn't wait to see
what changes had taken place. When she arrived she didn't recognize the
creature. It no longer looked like a caterpillar at all. What hung from
the milkweed leaf was now a hard, waxy, emerald green blob with golden
flecks.

"Grandma," she ask; "What will happen next?"

"The pupa will appear to become transparent, and you will be able to see the
butterfly's colorful wings inside. It will begin to wiggle, crack, and finally
the adult monarch will come out." Grandma Karen explained. Larissa's hazel
eyes grew with excitement as she told her what was to happen.

"Oh, Grandma, I can't wait until it becomes a butterfly!"

"It will be any day now," she told her as she stroked the short wisps of her
chestnut brown hair.

The next day, Larissa went as quickly as her Grandma could lead her to her
favorite spot in the garden. There she found the monarch wiggling it's way
out of the now transparent pupa shell. "It's here! It's here!" Larissa
exclaimed. Upon inspection, she found the black and orange wings were small
and life less once it had emerged. "It is all right?" she asked. "Grandma, is
it all right?"

"Oh, it's just fine dear! The monarch must first pump fluid into its wings so
they will unfold, then it must rest overnight. When its body is warmed by the
morning sun, the butterfly will set out in search of food." Larissa knew how
important rest was. She needed much rest herself these days. She was so tired.

"Grandma, tell me more about the butterflies," she said as she leaned back
against the comfort of her Grandma and closed her eyes. Grandma Karen took
her under her arm, pulled her close, and told her all about the life of a
butterfly.

She told her that even though monarchs appeared to be delicate and
fragile, they had incredible endurance. Butterflies were warm weather
creatures, and their bodies cannot withstand cooler air. When they were
exposed to temperatures below fifty-five degrees, their bodies were unable
to fly. Every fall millions of monarchs flew to the mountains of Mexico
because the air was warm throughout the winter. Some of the butterflies
flew twenty miles an hour and covered an average of eighty to one hundred
miles a day. The monarchs returned to the exact same site in the mountains
every year about the first of November. People in Mexico call their return
"The Day of the Dead" because the ancient Indian natives believed that the
monarchs were returning spirits of dead children or souls of lost warriors.
Grandma Karen told her that the butterflies had a very short life span.
Those that were hatched during the spring and summer lived on a few weeks,
and those that migrated south in the fall lived about six months.
She told Larissa that although they did not live long lives, they gave so
much to the world. Butterflies played a very important part in pollinating the
wild flowers in the meadows. They also brought much beauty to the earth and
touched all that saw them. Monarchs represented the natural beauty of the
universe and the continuity of life.

Larissa closed her eyes and imagined herself much like the beautiful monarch
gracefully floating in the wind. She fluttered among the beauty of the garden
with ease. Allowing the strength of her wings to carry her weak, fragile body
to new heights. The wind cradled her in its arms as she soared high into the
cloudless sky. She admired the breathtaking splash of colors against the
freshness of the new green grass below. "What a masterpiece her Grandma had
created." She thought. A sudden breeze filled with the heavenly scent of
hyacinths brought Larissa back to reality. She was once again herself. She
was so tired without the help of wings to carry her.

Larissa asked her mom to take her to Grandma Karen's every chance she had
so that she could watch the monarch. She knew that her time left with the
beautiful butterfly was short for it would soon die. She observed the butterfly
as it perched itself on the pale purple blooms of the lilac bush nestled in the
corner of the garden. She felt so peaceful sitting among nature's splendor
as she and the monarch basked in the warmth of the sun. Larissa wondered if
the monarch somehow knew that its life was coming to an end. Surely it did
not for it floated slowly and quietly, as if it had much time to explore the
newly-bloomed butterfly bush and all that lie beyond the garden gate. "On the
other hand," she thought, "maybe it was savoring everything that it took in
so that it could take every memory with it into the heavens."

She looked on as the butterfly drifted about taking in the nectar of the
milkweed for nourishment. Her Grandma had told her that monarchs eat
the milkweed plant because it contains a poison that protects them.
Although the poison does not harm the monarch, it will cause a bird
that has eaten a butterfly containing the poison to become ill. The
bird will then refrain from eating another. Larissa thought that the
poison must be somewhat like the medicine that she took to cure her.
It was considered toxic, but it was to protect her from the attack of
more cancer.

One morning Larissa and her Grandma Karen sat in the garden upon a
plaid picnic blanket. The dampness of the dew-kissed grass underneath
could be felt through the fabric on the backs of their legs. As they
sat absorbing the rays of the late morning sun, they observed the monarch
fluttering among the periwinkle blue forget-me-nots tucked in between
the pickets of the weather-strained fence. There, crawling beside them
was a caterpillar bearing black, white, and yellow stripes.
"Larissa, look!" Grandma Karen exclaimed. "See the caterpillar?
Do you think it came from one of our monarch's eggs?"

"A butterfly lays eggs?" Larissa asked, her eyes beaming with curiosity.

"Yes". She answered. "After mating, a monarch begins laying eggs, about
the size of a pinhead, for the next generation. It lays them one at a
time underneath the leaf of a milkweed plant, and can lay up 700 eggs.
Inside the egg a caterpillar begins to develop, and eventually eats it's
way out of the egg. When the butterfly has laid its last egg, its dying
process begins."

Larissa knew that the butterfly would not live much longer. Sadly, she
thought about the importance the monarch had in life, and about how hard
it had to work in the short time it was here on earth. It made her happy
to think that part of the monarch would go on in the life of the new
caterpillar and the lives it had touched.

Larissa laid down with her head in Grandma's lap as she took in the view
of the monarch slowly and quietly drinking nectar from the milkweed.
Grandma Karen gently stroked the short wisps of hair that remained on
Larissa's head as they watched the monarch struggle to move its wings�wings
that were now old and tattered from the storms it had weathered and the
battles it had survived with the birds. The end was near. It refused to
give up as it fought to fly onward, wings opened wide, reaching toward the
billowy, white clouds. It cut through the air fluttering about with no
direction, and then slowly began to fall to the ground. The butterfly lay
lifeless with its wings drawn tightly together, like hands in prayer. Just
like that, it had peacefully passed on.

Larissa carefully picked up the monarch and placed it in the palm of her hand.
She lightly traced her fingertip over the now faded golden-orange and ebony
pattern of its wings. Tears gently slid over the softness of Larissa's porcelain
cheek. The warmth of memories flowed from within. They reflected the
realization that all lives must end. Looking toward heaven she whispered.
"Goodbye, my little butterfly. Thank you for showing me the beauty of life,
the meaning of existence and the peace of death. I'll be seeing you again soon."

A month later, with her wings faded, tattered and torn, Larissa too passed on.
Peacefully and quietly as she slept she joined the monarch just as she had
said she would.

Late one September afternoon, Grandma Karen sadly wondered among
the goldenrod and cosmos in her garden. She missed Larissa so
much. She thought about that spring and the time they shared watching
the birth of the monarch butterfly and the beauty of it's
transformation. She remembered the stories she told and the love they
shared. She was about to go back into the house when she heard the most
beautiful song. It was a butterfly song, barely audible by the human ear
in the hush of the quiet�a special moment�a special song. It was a
monarch's wings whispering in the wind, "Grandma�look at me. I'm a
flying flower in the sky. I'm happy, I'm alive, and I'm free!"
Larissa softly landed on the back of Grandma Karen's hand fluttering
her strong new wings with grace. Then, just before she danced off toward
the endless blue of the September day, she gently brushed against
Grandma's cheek�one last kiss before she joined the other monarchs
headed to Mexico.

As she soared, she once again sang, "Grandma�look at me,
Grandma�look at me. I'm a flying flower in the sky.
I'm happy. I'm alive. And I'm free.