"How Do I Love Thee": Three Stories Quiz

Answer: Shayla

Shayla had a rare disorder known as xeroderma pigmentosum. The victims were highly sensitive to UV light, also known as sunlight. Only 1,000 people had it worldwide and there was no cure. The victims were known as Children of the Moon, because they lived during the night. Shayla died near the end of the story when she fell asleep on her boat out in the open sea and morning came.

Answer: Leukemia

Brett was diagnosed with leukemia when he was very young and at the time of the story had been in remission for five years. When he was first diagnosed Brett's father left Brett and his mother to fend for themselves. Brett and his mother moved near Cape Cod and that is where he met Shayla.

Answer: Kimberly

Shayla's best friend was Kimberly from Camp Sundown, a camp specifically for Children of the Moon. At the end of the book, Kimberly died so Shayla went out in her boat to find peace.

Answer: Florida

Brett and his mother moved from Florida to Cape Cod during his senior year of high school. Brett was very upset about the move, however one night he met a mysterious girl named Shayla who showed him that life was short and should be lived to the fullest.

Answer: Steve

Steve was Bobby's older half brother who was the spotlight in his family because he was a great athlete. Steve dated Bobby's current girlfriend, Dana, one summer and fell in love with her. When he is diagnosed with terminal cancer they resume their relationship in private until he dies of complications.

Answer: 4

Dana had played the piano since she was four and she hoped to get into Juilliard. Dana and Steve had met at Hilton Head Hotel's music room a few summers back, where she had been playing the piece "Moonlight Sonata" which became his favorite.

Answer: True

At the end of the story, Bobby wrote a letter to Dana that confessed that he had known about her and Steve's relationship. Dana found it quite ironic that they had been trying to protect Bobby, when truthfully it had been the other way around. The letter also included how Bobby understood how Dana had loved both of them but in different ways.

Answer: Ramon

Ramon Ochoa was an orderly at the hospital who fell in love with Laura. He was Latino and had been in a gang before he decided to straighten his life out. In the end, however, Ramon was killed in a drive by and his heart was given to Laura.

Answer: Mississippi

Laura's family lived in New York where it could take up to four years to recieve a heart transplant. In Mississippi it wouldn't take more than eight months so her family had planned to move there. However, before they did a heart was found; after the surgery Laura learned that it was Ramon's heart inside of her. He had been killed in a drive by near his day job at the grocery store.

Answer: poetry book

Brett, Dana, and Laura all received a book of poetry after their loved ones died. Their favorite poem was Elizabeth Browning's sonnet, "How Do I Love Thee." Elizabeth Browning wrote this sonnet over a century ago for the man she loved and lost to death.