I always tell people our survival is a miracle. Different things happen to everyone every day but somehow we manage because all those prayers that are said on our behalf go into this big well where we go to get revived, rejuvenated, and restored. Some of us even get re-booted. Or at least some of us.
It's easy to demonize Jillian McCabe rather than accept that we have a crisis in this country for people going without ongoing mental health support services, not only when they hear the diagnosis of MS, cancer, autism, or brain damage, but when they try to live with it everyday. She already had a track record for mental illness and depression so she needed full-blown support. Support to take on her journey. Support that will maintain a job, pay medical bills, and still provide for quality and purposeful life for children.
This business of raising kids with special needs, the kids that require 24 hour care, isn't for everyone which is why we can't gloss over the messy business of caregiving. We have to be really honest about our reality raising our children which is why I suppose people terminate pregnancies when they are told about issues with the ultrasounds and genetic tests. Maybe they see what we're not seeing.
I think it's even more difficult for parents when they find out after the child is born and missing milestones. When the diagnosis and prognosis drops like a piano into pieces from the ceiling into their living room. What kind of mental health support services are they given today? What kind of hope are they given? Maybe our beautiful little boy London would be alive today if his mother received early infant to childhood intervention, parent education, therapy, and other support services for her journey while she was on her way to the well. That well where all the prayers go that are said on behalf of our children.
2 comments:
What a heartfelt outpouring about life with a child with special needs. Simply precious!
I don't know the circumstances that lead up to Jillian McCabe making such a tragic decision, but I do know what it's like to take care of my multiply disabled daughter who has occasional violent outbursts and having only 0-4 hours of respite a week for years on end. I know how overwhelming it can get. I can't imagine why no one noticed that Jillian was experiencing mental illness symptoms. I'm sorry but thinking of the absolute terror that poor child must have felt as he was falling makes me not so very sympathetic to Jillian.
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