When Manon Rinsma was twelve, she sat at her computer starting what she hoped to be a book. That same day, her mother passed away. Over a decade later, she finally found the words.This collection of short essays traces the road leading up to that loss: the slow realization, the questions children are often scared to ask out loud, and the way time stretches and collapses when someone you love is fading. Manon hopes others facing similar loss will feel less alone, won't miss out on valuable time, and will better understand a child's perspective when a parent is slipping away.13 Diamonds: Life Before Death from a Child's Perspective is a story about family. It is about hope and all the beauty life has to offer, until the unimaginable strikes and a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball made itself at home, intruding in the happy lives of a loving family. 13 Diamonds portrays the feelings and views of a young girl who witnessed her mother, the brightest, most beautiful woman she knew, slowly die-taken by this horrific form of cancer. It is about strength, life, death, beauty, grief, and most importantly, it is a story about love.