Coming of Age

Through her first lies to her mother through her discovery that she really is not afflicted with SCID, Madeline comes of age as she learns to try to cope first with her disease and then with her realization that her mother fabricated her disease in an attempt to protect her. Madeline has had an unusual coming of age experience because she has not been able to interact with the world like others her age. When she meets Olly and feels the need to protect their relationship, Madeline lies to her mother for the first time. Although she had been happy with the life she had before she met Olly, Madeline decides when she meets him that there was more to life. She makes a decision that perhaps it is worth death in order to get to really experience life for even just a day...