The truth was, I didn’t know if I could do it. I didn’t know if I was as strong as Aunt Lillian. I found myself remembering one of those stories of hers, the one about folks crossing over, how they came back either poets or crazy, and I sure couldn’t rhyme more than the odd verse or two of doggerel.

Charles de Lint, Seven Wild Sisters: A Modern Fairy Tale [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]