Has anyone seen this article before?

[Guest guest]

I saw the program they did about this on Dateline -- didn't she has MS or ALS or something????? This is an old case -- 96, I think it says.

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

I found this Dear Abby article to be very moving as I am dealing

with the fact my son is different from other kids. The woman who

wrote it has a son with Down's Syndrome, but I think a lot of

parents can relate to it. I am so thankful for the world of parents

out there that I would never have met. Thank you all!!

in NY

RAISING CHILD WITH DISABILITY IS JOURNEY FULL OF SURPRISE

DEAR ABBY: Several years ago, a mother of a disabled child sent you

a moving essay, " Welcome to Holland. " It became one of my most

treasured pieces, but unfortunately I have lost my copy. Could you

please reprint it for me and your readers? –A GRANDMA IN NASHVILLE

DEAR GRANDMA: With pleasure. I am frequently asked to reprint the

essay written by Perl Kingsley, a wonderful mother whose child

had Down syndrome. October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month

and this essay is dedicated to the parents and grandparents of all

children who cope with disabilities.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

By Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with

a disability—to try to help people who have not shared the unique

experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like

this…

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous

vacation trip—to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your

wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michelangelo's " . " The gondolas

in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all

very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You

pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands.

The flight attendant comes and says, " Welcome to Holland. "

" Holland?! " you say, " What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for

Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of

going to Italy. "

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in

Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible,

disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease.

It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. You must learn a whole

new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you

would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less

flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you

catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that

Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has

Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and

they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And

for the rest of your life, you will say, " Yes, that's where I was

supposed to go. That's what I had planned. "

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the

loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to

Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very

lovely things about Holland.

October 2, 2000