I have been listening periodically to a brilliant book by Andrew Solomon entitled Far From the Tree. It is ridiculously long, 40 hours on audio, but every time I hear it I learn something.
Solomon writes about the lives of people who are born “different” from their parents and most other people in the world. He sympathetically tells their stories and the stories of the people who are close to them.
While telling a story of the family of a Down Syndrome child he reads this short essay written by Emily Perl Kingsly, the child’s mother. I found it very moving and hope you find it worth reading. Welcome to Holland.
-Lloyd Graff
Welcome to Holland
By Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved. c1987
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that 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 guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. 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 stewardess comes in 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 guide books. And 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…and 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, ever go away…because the loss of that dream is a very 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.
Question: If you could do it all over again would you have kids?
12 Comments
Yes! We’ do it all over again. I have a daughter that is 43 years old that was born with Spina Bifida. She is able to drive a car, work a full-time job. She still lives with us because she can’t afford to move out and live on her own. We wouldn’t trade a moment with her for anything.
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks, Karl, go crawl back under your rock. your ignorance is showing.
We deleted that horrible comment.
Of course.
After all the heartaches; headaches; the shortcomings; the sleepless nights and all other frustrations; in a heart beat! would not change a thing and have them all over again.
The grandkids just confirm my belief. You get what you get; they come with their own personalities and issues but they are a lot of fun.
I am also color blind, I am not white, or black or yellow or red, just call me beige; maybe an ugly color but goes well with everything. So send them all as they come; they all are children of God.
ABSOLUTELY.
They are a wonderfully incredible gift.
Wonderful article. Thanks for sharing. Yes, I would do it again. Being a mom is the most rewarding, time consuming, frustrating, scary, and exhilarating adventure of my life 🙂
Part of me says yes. Then I look at the sorry state of this country and say no.
The beauty of leaving in this country is that we are free to make changes. If we care for one another there is always hope and our children are part of that hope.
Just spent a little time today with young wife and mom of an employee that was killed this weekend by another family member. The mother also works for us and even in her deepest hour of pain she only wants her son back. Easy answer, ABSOLUTELY!!
I write this looking through tears. Would I do it again? You bet, even though I have lost my oldest and my youngest sons. The memories are too good to ever give back.
Thanks Lloyd. Always enjoy your writing, all the way back to the first issue of the magazine.