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Krista talks about what's important.
Jan. 19th, 2006 10:09 pmThere are several kids in my extended family, and said family spends a lot of time together. And I shouldn't play favorites, of course I don't. I love them all and think they're all brats (depending upon the day.) They are all special to me in one way or another, but I've always had a soft spot for Krista.
Krista is twelve, and she has Down's Syndrome. Most of the stories I want to tell about her I usually just skip because it's hard to describe the whole thing and if you're missing that, you don't get the rest of the story. Her case is mild.. as far as that can be "mild", of course. You can see it when you look at her, and she is not where she should be developmentally, but at the same time, she's not as far behind as she could be. She knows her letters, she can read some words, do a little math, and in some ways she's very clever. She'll carry on a conversation with you.. you might not always know right away what she's saying, but you'll almost always be able to figure it out. It can break your heart if you think about it too much, but mainly, we're just glad she is who she is, because she would be a totally different person if she was "normal".
One reason that she always makes me smile is because she calls me Sweetie, and she always acts quite happy to see me. On my 21st birthday, she (who would have been about seven at the time) went out to lunch with my mom and me. She was in a phase right about then where she was quite rude to people, and called them nasty names. (We always snorted when people said something like, "oh, those kids are so loving and sweet!") I finally got irate with her and explained that it wasn't nice to call people bad names, and insisted that if she was going to call me something other than Sissy* it should be something like Honey, or Sweetie, or Darlin'. She thought that was very funny, so she called me Sweetie all day long. Then I popped off to Sweden for the summer, and fully expected, if I had thought of it at all, that she would have forgotten it by the time I returned. But she didn't. She still only calls me Sweetie, and I call her Sweetie, too. And further, she didn't like it at ALL when it was suggested that the other kids call me that. That's HER name for me and no one else's!
*My cousin Brad, who is now nineteen, started calling me Sissy when he was just a year or two old. No one really knows why he did it, he just pointed at me one day and said, "Sissy!" So that's what several of the other kids, including my niece, call me.. although when she was old enough, I tried to move Whitley into "Aunt Sissy" territory but she has resisted. She calls me that sometimes. The second cousin to have kids, though (she has three now) apparently doesn't like it much, because she has taught her kids not to do it. Which, I don't really care except that it feels strange to hear them call me by name after years of the kids not doing it.
Anyway, that's not the story I was going to tell tonight. Her mother took her down to visit her grandfather last week. The grandfather and his wife are very into their church, and there was some sort of healing service being performed. There was something about fasting and something about healing water and something about a lady with cancer, but I'm not entirely sure what the actual deal was, or why my cousin thought they should go. Anyway, people were going to the front and splashing water on themselves where they needed healing and praying for their problems to heal. Well, Krista apparently decided that she wanted to get in on it, so she went up to pray herself. (I'm not sure, but I think this was rather without permission.. she has a tendency to do things like this all on her own.) Anyway, when she splashed the water on herself, she splashed it on her face. (At this point, my mom was afraid that this story would make her cry. Krista pointed out another boy with Down's once and said that he looked like her, so she does have some awareness that she's not like everyone else.. it could have gone in a totally different direction.) Anyway, when she returned to her seat, her mother asked her what she had prayed for.
"NO ZITS."
Krista is twelve, and she has Down's Syndrome. Most of the stories I want to tell about her I usually just skip because it's hard to describe the whole thing and if you're missing that, you don't get the rest of the story. Her case is mild.. as far as that can be "mild", of course. You can see it when you look at her, and she is not where she should be developmentally, but at the same time, she's not as far behind as she could be. She knows her letters, she can read some words, do a little math, and in some ways she's very clever. She'll carry on a conversation with you.. you might not always know right away what she's saying, but you'll almost always be able to figure it out. It can break your heart if you think about it too much, but mainly, we're just glad she is who she is, because she would be a totally different person if she was "normal".
One reason that she always makes me smile is because she calls me Sweetie, and she always acts quite happy to see me. On my 21st birthday, she (who would have been about seven at the time) went out to lunch with my mom and me. She was in a phase right about then where she was quite rude to people, and called them nasty names. (We always snorted when people said something like, "oh, those kids are so loving and sweet!") I finally got irate with her and explained that it wasn't nice to call people bad names, and insisted that if she was going to call me something other than Sissy* it should be something like Honey, or Sweetie, or Darlin'. She thought that was very funny, so she called me Sweetie all day long. Then I popped off to Sweden for the summer, and fully expected, if I had thought of it at all, that she would have forgotten it by the time I returned. But she didn't. She still only calls me Sweetie, and I call her Sweetie, too. And further, she didn't like it at ALL when it was suggested that the other kids call me that. That's HER name for me and no one else's!
*My cousin Brad, who is now nineteen, started calling me Sissy when he was just a year or two old. No one really knows why he did it, he just pointed at me one day and said, "Sissy!" So that's what several of the other kids, including my niece, call me.. although when she was old enough, I tried to move Whitley into "Aunt Sissy" territory but she has resisted. She calls me that sometimes. The second cousin to have kids, though (she has three now) apparently doesn't like it much, because she has taught her kids not to do it. Which, I don't really care except that it feels strange to hear them call me by name after years of the kids not doing it.
Anyway, that's not the story I was going to tell tonight. Her mother took her down to visit her grandfather last week. The grandfather and his wife are very into their church, and there was some sort of healing service being performed. There was something about fasting and something about healing water and something about a lady with cancer, but I'm not entirely sure what the actual deal was, or why my cousin thought they should go. Anyway, people were going to the front and splashing water on themselves where they needed healing and praying for their problems to heal. Well, Krista apparently decided that she wanted to get in on it, so she went up to pray herself. (I'm not sure, but I think this was rather without permission.. she has a tendency to do things like this all on her own.) Anyway, when she splashed the water on herself, she splashed it on her face. (At this point, my mom was afraid that this story would make her cry. Krista pointed out another boy with Down's once and said that he looked like her, so she does have some awareness that she's not like everyone else.. it could have gone in a totally different direction.) Anyway, when she returned to her seat, her mother asked her what she had prayed for.
"NO ZITS."
