Special People

Sharon Bryant

? 

I met her the first day I arrived in Alabama back in '84. ?  I was unhooking my fifth-wheel trailer from my pick up when I noticed a? very short? woman sitting on a three-wheel bike.?  I noticed her gray hair and the way her body leaned to one side.?  I waved.?  She grinned and waved back.?  Suddenly another? short older woman ran up to her scolding her for bothering me.?  I told her no one was bothering me and it was ok if she wanted to "hang around."

The older lady said, "I'm Edith and this is my daughter Janice."?  I said my hello's and Janice rode her bike behind her mom back to their trailer.

? 

A couple days later Edith and Janice came back over.?  I was getting settled in.?  I was outside making a makeshift clothes line when Janice rode up on her bike.?  I said hi and asked her if she'd like a cold glass of tea.?  She grunted and shook her head yes.?  Just as I was handing her the glass, her mother appeared and scolded her for taking a drink from me.?  I told Edith it was ok, that I'd made a large pitcher of tea and I had plenty.

? 

Janice became a regular hanging around my place after that.?  I told Edith it was ok if she wanted to hang out with me, my kids were both in school and until I found work, I had the time.?  Edith then began coming over when Janice did.?  It was then I learned some things about Edith and her life, born and raised in the mountains of Tennessee.

? 

Edith had married a Navy man many years ago.?  She became pregnant the second year of marriage.?  The night Janice was born was devastating to her.?  For Janice was born handicapped and the Navy man was not about to raise a retarded child.?  He walked out on Edith and her newborn daughter.

? 

Edith became a seamstress and for many years it fed and clothed and made shelter for the mother and daughter.?  I have seen many of the outfits Edith has made and I marveled at her talent.?  She made everything that both she and Janice wore, including their underwear.? 

Still, the two never had much as far as possessions and basic needs.?  Yet the love they had for one another far exceeded anything money could buy.

? 

Edith was born to a poor Tennessee family many years ago.?  She had twin brothers who were both born with severe handicaps.?  They were in a state home and monthly she took a bus to go visit with them.

I knew Edith had very little money for groceries.?  I'd been over to her place many times and saw what she and Janice were eating for supper.?  It always seemed to be cornbread and pinto beans.?  I didn't see meats, or other veggies.?  I saw bare cupboards.?  Yet I saw a handicapped daughter who adored her mother and a mother who would have died to protect her daughter.? 

? 

One day I asked Edith what doctors had told her was wrong with Janice.?  Janice couldn't speak words clearly and most of the time, you could make out a "Ug or a grunt on some kind."?  But Edith learned how to decipher what those sounds were as Janice grew.?  She told me they never explained to her what was wrong with Janice, only that she was retarded and she would never be able to live by herself.

? 

One day I was? going to make? cookies and I had? asked Edith the night before if Janice could come over and give me a hand.?  Edith said it was ok.

I got out sugar, eggs flour, and all the makings for cookies early that morning.?  Just as soon as my kids left for work, Janice was knocking on my door.?  She was so excited to be doing something like making cookies.?  When I asked her if she was ready, she shook her head yes several times and I said, "Well, let's start."? 

I began to watch Janice as I spoke to her.?  I told her to measure out two cups of flour.?  I watched as she slowly filled the big measuring cup and yelled, "Otay," when she reached the mark on the cup.?  I then handed her the bowl of eggs and told her to crack four eggs for me.?  I watched as she counted each egg, but got the number correct.?  I gave her sugar to measure, milk to measure and each time she was correct on the marks on the measuring cups.?  Then it was time to shape the cookies, and squeals of laughter came from Janice as she shaped the cookies.?  We watched them rise and bake in the oven.?  When they were done I showed Janice how to lift them off the cookie sheet into a large bowl.?  She did everything the way I told her to.

? 

When Edith came by to check on Janice, you could hear Janice squeal "Mama" with pride as she showed her mother the cookies she baked.?  I told Janice to go into my daughter's room and find something to play with, that I wanted to talk to her mother.?  Janice did as told.?  I looked Edith in the eye then told her how Janice knew the measurements on the cup.?  I told her she had done everything perfectly, that she understood what I was telling her to do.?  She just couldn't reply back with words that we could understand.? 

? 

One day Edith came running over to my place and asked me, "What's that food you made that time with cabbage on the outside and hamburger on the inside?"?  I said, "You mean stuffed cabbage?"?  "Yep, stuffed cabbage," she said.?  "Will you be making them again?"?  I assured her yes, I would be making them again and Janice and she would be invited to my house for dinner when I did.?  "You Yankee's sure know what to do with hamburger," she said.?  I laughed.?  She was always asking me about things we did in the North.?  I told her there was some great cooking in the south too.?  She taught me to eat grits and I had her eating breaded pork chops and stuffed cabbage.?  She never had an omelet before so when I invited her and Janice for breakfast one morning, I laughed as both of them kept lifting the top of the omelet to see what was in it.?  "You put spuds in this egg thing?" she asked.?  "I sure do," I said.?  She grinned and said it tasted wonderful.?  Janice sat there and just kept saying, "Yum."

? 

I took those two under my wing and watched out for them.?  Christmas Eve I made a pretty large spread of assorted foods and invited them both over.?  They had food they had never eaten before in their lives.?  I had them back Christmas Day for a feast and I watched as Janice tucked her napkin in the front of her blouse and grinned the biggest grin you can imagine.? 

When I handed Janice the big box that held a new coat and a large teddy bear, she cried.?  She had never had a stuffed animal before.?  The hug I got that day when they were ready to go home......I can't forget.?  Nor the "I uv ooo" that Janice said when she saw two big boxes filled with groceries for the two of them.

? 

I spent a year around Edith and her beautiful daughter.?  I learned to know the signs Janice would give with her hands to tell me something.?  And I watched as she always listened to everything we said, nodding her head.?  If she didn't understand something, she would turn her head to one side and I could see the question in her eyes.?  I would explain to her in the way you would a child what we were talking about.?  Then that head would nod up and down to let us know she understood.

? 

I read books to Janice.?  I taught her the letters of the alphabet, and she could count up to 50 in no time.?  How excited she became as she learned new things.?  Edith would put her hands together and say a prayer and thank God they had met me.?  But it was me who was thankful that God led me to this wonderful mother and daughter.?  For it was I who learned so much more.

? 

When Edith wanted to move into an apartment and sell the trailer, I told her not to sign the title over until she had the money in her hand, cash.?  I had moved away from the area? but I kept phone contact with Edith.? 

One night Edith called crying, telling me her trailer was gone, and she never got paid.?  Come to find out, her minister beat her out of the money for her trailer.?  I got hold of this minister and told him what I would do to him legally if he did not give her the money.?  He wasn't a happy camper nor was I, but Edith got her money that week.?  I helped her move into her new apartment.?  I gave Edith many things I had around my house to help make her new apartment more homey.

? 

Edith's twin brothers had died, and I watched her get onto a bus with a heavy heart to attend the funeral of one, then the other just a few months later.? 

When the new bully kid moved into the area and taunted Janice one morning about being a "retard" I nailed that kid and told him if I ever caught him calling Janice that again, he'd have to get past me.?  Oddly, he never bothered her again.?  Matter of fact, Edith told me he even fixed a flat tire on Janice's bike later on that year.

? 

Edith's biggest fear was if something happened to her, what would happen to Janice??  She knew the state would put her in a home.?  There were no family members willing to take Janice.?  Janice is well aware of this situation if it happens and when I last saw her and she overheard her mother telling me about it, Janice punched me in the arm and said, "Me go, ooo."?  I laughed and said, "We'll see."

? 

Edith is still alive as I write this.?  I recently spoke to her on the phone.? ?  Her health is failing.?  Yet she had a love for God that few ever know.? 

Nothing upsets me more today than to see someone who is handicapped and kids making fun of them.?  Little do they know just because that person may not speak clearly, they understand what is being said about them.?  They have hearts.?  They have feelings.

? 

Perhaps the next time you see someone like Janice, think about a woman who taught? me many things about handicapped.?  And think of a mother who has given her all to raise a child on her own.?  But most of all, think of a girl/woman who touched my life.?  Someone like that could touch yours.?  And I promise, if they do, you will never forget them.

? 

? 

Sharon Bryant

1946@bellsouth.net

? 

?