The first time I ever heard of delta was learning the Greek
alphabet, delta the fourth letter, not because I was learning
Greek, but for mathematics and physics, where delta denotes
the change in some variable, delta in its capital form an
equilateral triangle—finite differences, not the infinitesimal
kind appearing in calculus. Then there’s the well-known
triangular land mass at the mouth of a river. And finally
the US-based airline, still among the living. I didn’t know
that I was a carrier of the Delta f508 gene and had passed it
on to my older son who didn’t know that he’d married
another carrier and that the laws of probability meant that
their newborn daughter had a 25% chance of having CF.
We pray that modern medicine has improved her chances
of having a normal life span. We pray every day.
