THE JENNY HATCH ORDEAL AND TRIUMPH

I read the people magazine article on Jenny Hatch with a lot of interest because I'm also the parent of a young woman like Jenny, a trajectory that's fully explored in one of my books "A Different Journey."  Children and adults with Down Syndrome test your mettle from the moment they are born but they also give you a full, rewarding and meaningful life.  Dealing with their disability from the moment they are born (whether they are high functioning or low functioning) is hard and it requires grit, determination and a big heart.  That said, Jenny is a lucky young woman in that she falls among the very few people with this condition who are extremely high functioning or even borderline, so I take exemption with the grandmother for attributing Jenny's level of intelligence to the care she received during childhood.  My daughter falls in the range of the majority of adults with this condition which is moderate retardation, and I killed myself since she was a baby trying to make her like Jenny.  There was nobody in the world who received more love, attention, devotion and instruction than my daughter but I couldn't change her range.  She understands everything you tell her but her speech is limited and she could never do what Jenny did in a hundred years.  If I had put her in an institution like Jenny's mother did because she became inconvenient as an adult, she could have never fought for her rights, freedom and dignity like Jenny Hatch did.  She would simply die of a broken heart.  Adults with this condition are just like everyone else, some are born more intelligent than others but that doesn't change the fact that they all need love, affection and understanding throughout their lives, no matter how low functioning or high functioning they are.  Jenny's mother put her in an institution and turned her back on her so nothing the grandmother can say now in defense of her daughter can ever obliterate that fact.