Victories, Sweet and Simple

Today's The Boston Globe has a piece written by their columnist, Beverly Beckham.

I have been loving reading her columns since she started writing about her grand-daughter, Lucy......

When I read the words of Beverly Beckham and the love of her grand-daughter, it always reminded me of my own Mother. Now that my dear, sweet Mother has passed.....Beverly Beckhams reflections of living and loving life with Lucy is so very poignant for me. In her words, I hear my own Mothers voice.

Thank you Ms. Beckham........

BEVERLY BECKHAM
Victories, sweet and simple
August 12, 2007
'The victories, when they come, will be sweet," someone, many someones, told us after my granddaughter Lucy was born.

But we didn't believe in victories then or that life would ever be sweet again. We were stunned and scared and grieving the child Lucy wasn't. The words "Down syndrome" had rocked our world.

We should have listened to the people in the trenches, mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers, people who knew and loved someone with a disability who kept telling us: She will be fine. You will be fine. You will be better than fine. Wait. You'll see. We've seen.

In the beginning it was milestones that made us hold our breath and when Lucy reached them, exhale. Victories? Not quite. Just markers on the progress chart, things to check off, to tell doctors and therapists: Yes, she can do that.

But sweet, too. Definitely sweet.

If only Lucy would smile, we said. She should be smiling. Why isn't she smiling? Peek-a-boo, Lucy. Tickle, tickle, tickle. We made funny faces. We stood on our heads. We did everything but hire a clown.

And she was only 2 months old.

I don't know when Lucy decided to grace us with her first grin, or why we didn't record it after obsessing about it for weeks. But I know she was laughing and smiling when she was only 3 months old because I pasted a picture of her in my journal and wrote. "Lucy was amazing in church today. She was wide-eyed and smiling."

And so Lucy smiled. And rolled over. And crawled. And cooed..................

Please read the rest of the article here........and as my dear friend Rebecca said in her e-mail to me this morning letting me know about the article.....after you read it......read it again!