grief
Loss that rewrote everything that came after.
The Butterflies of the Soul
He won the 1906 Nobel Prize for proving the brain is built from separate cells. He found out by drawing them, on an ink-stained tablecloth, for fifty years.
The Long Walk Home
In 1841 a celebrated English poet walked out of his asylum and covered eighty miles in four days, eating grass and his own pipe tobacco, to reach a childhood sweetheart he was certain was waiting for him.
The Man Who Only Seemed Dead
Every night for years, Hans Christian Andersen left a note on his bedside table that read: "I only appear to be dead."
The Woman Who Built a Maze
Every child who has ever ridden the Haunted Mansion passed through her grief and never knew.