Wednesday, November 25, 2015

A Letter to My Bubbie

Here's a piece I just wrote for BLOOM, a beautiful on-line community physically and cognitively disabled kids, their families and caregivers.

An excerpt: 

"I started this letter to you a hundred times or more in my head, and each time, I started crying, so I had to stop, and try to focus on the positive until my breathing became more rhythmic, my limbs a little more heavy and relaxed, giving me a chance let my body and mind rest, and sleep away my worry for a blissful few hours while I have help at night."

"When morning comes, and the sun returns to its rightful place on the new day’s horizon, my fears start creeping in again. I wake up, generally thankful and truly grateful for the new day and its blessings. But I confess, I look into the mirror and see a middle-aged woman looking back at me. That woman no longer has a special needs child, she has a special needs teenager, who will soon be her developmentally disabled adult child, a dependent adult different from other adult children—always."

"We had our first “transition” meeting, and I guess that has been sort of a trigger. The road from disabled child, to teen to adult is a bumpy one and I have to admit how scared I am to travel upon it."