I am starting to love what StoryCorps does more and more. It’s such a wonderful thing to keep a record of everyday people and the lives that they lead, like the poignant and tender tale of Danny and Annie.
This time, we have 12-year-old Jonathan Littman interview his mother Sarah. The catch is, Jonathan has Asperger’s syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder. What I love most about this is Sarah’s candid answers to her son. When he asked if he was the son that she had expected, my eyes welled up. Of course he wasn’t – but that didn’t mean she loved him any lesser, or that he didn’t exceed her expectations. Listening to her answer his questions made me want to be the mom that she is when we have children.
Recently, my sister had a Down Syndrome scare with her baby. While everyone fretted and flapped their hands in panic, I was strangely calm. I just knew that the baby is going to be fine, with or without Down Syndrome. Because we are all going to love him and care for him, regardless.
What if our child turns out to be suffering from a disorder and we have the option to abort him/her? I posed the question to Mr Thick and he said he wasn’t mentally or financially prepared to take care of a child with health problems (I love asking him these “what if” questions – though he doesn’t quite love answering them). He also noted that it was a tough question to answer hypothetically unless we were really faced with the situation.
My answer was, I would keep the baby. Because it’s our child, we made him and he didn’t ask to have a disorder. Was it fair to deny him of the life that he could have then?
Here’s one mother who didn’t count on her daughter being a Down syndrome baby. She cried her heart out and then embraced who her child is, never looking back. How beautiful and strong.
Yannisms 