13 June 2012
I have a six year old daughter, Grace. I also have a 10 year old Jennifer.
They are both amazing girls. But seeing them both together and with their friends is amazingShe is an amazing little girl that has taught me more about life than any scholar could.
Grace was born with spina bifida. She has hydrocephalus too and is fed by a tube into her tummy as well as many other hindrances in her young life .
I tell you all these things because recently due to becoming unemployed I have been taking my girls on the daily school run, something I have rarely had chance to do previously.
Grace goes to a mainstream school and she adores it.
It is only this past week that I have noticed how the other children treat her and it has been a bit of a revelation. You see they adore her, they always want to push her in her chair and greet her with cuddles and kisses and they don't seem to notice her disability or if they do they have recognised the fact that she needs help with certain things and that is just what they do, help!
I then got to thinking, why if children of 6 can be so compassionate to each other that we as adults shy away from helping the lame and afflicted, what is it that hardens most people's hearts or causes them to look away when they see a less abled person in the street.
Grace has truly been a blessing to us, we are truly more understanding but even now my instinctive response to a less abled person is that of pity and I hate myself for doing so but what made me this way?
Pity is the last thing a disabled person wants to receive in my experience they want the same thing we all want to be treated with the dignity and respect that we all deserve.
Opuss № I