Prologue
Life is like a carrousel.
Once it starts turning you can't get off until it stops again. I know that best of all, because I am living on this carrousel every day.
My dad, Thatcher, left me and my mom when I was little. She was never really sad about the fact that he left. She was only sad about the fact that she had no one left to take care of me anymore and angry about the time she, as she said it, lost because she needed to raise me.
My mom was never the 'nice mother' kind of type, until she met Richard. He was the sun in her life. She fell in love with him from the moment she saw him. But he was a married man. A forbidden love. I still like to think that that's what made them so special together.
I remember me sitting on one of those stupid carrousels. Having the time of my life. I loved carrousels as a child. Always had. I saw my mom standing on the side. Laughing at me and waving with both hands.
The carousel made another round and I saw a man standing next to my mother. He was black, tall and handsome. I recognized him as Richard. The man my mother always talked about during diner. The guy she said she loved. The carrousel made another round and another. I watched my mom and Richard talking. I knew she loved him, but they didn't seem happy.
The next four rounds I watched them getting into a fight and I saw Richard walking away from her. The carrousel stopped. I came off and stood behind my mother. She was crying. And not just crying a little bit, her eyes where big and swollen up from the many tears falling from them. Her face turned red. I asked her what was going on, but she didn't want to talk about it.
After that day my mom wiped away all the love she had ever known. She didn't care about love anymore. Not even for me. She always thought that I was just another ordinary child. That I would become nothing. And I always thought she was right.
But here I am, standing in front of the hospital that has my mother's name all over it. Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. My name is Meredith Grey and this is my first day as a surgical intern.