Eunice & Rosemary Kennedy

So my daily rabbit hole started when a fellow mom (whose son [that happens to have Ds] will be going to preschool with Hannah - woo!) posted this outstanding video from the ESPYs of Timothy Shriver accepting the Arthur Ashe Award of Courage at the ESPY awards. 

Honoring Eunice Shriver

*Frankly, I’m not sure why the ESPYs exist in general - a lot of these athletes don’t need stroked any more than they already are.

I digress - I loved hearing Timothy’s message and reminding everyone the power and purpose of those with different abilities. Maybe even shedding some new light to those in the audience who never heard of the word “inclusion.” 

I vaguely knew that the Rose and Joe Kennedy’s oldest daughter, Rosemary, had an intellectual disability. This is what I imagine prompted most of the Kennedy’s wonderful advocacy for those with intellectual disabilities. 

I know a recent book, Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, is on the market and found a link that dipped a bit into it. The actual cause of her intellectual disability seems to have been preventable and is quite shocking (the end of the article does get politically biased as the author has a brother with Ds):

The Secret Lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy

“When that failed, she reached into Rose's birth canal and held the baby's head in place for an unbelievable two hours. In her book Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter, Kate Clifford Larson writes, “It was well understood that preventing the movement of the baby through the birth canal could cause a lack of oxygen, exposing the baby to possible brain damage and physical disability.””

Utterly unbelievable. Rosemary had a difficult time growing up and her parents struggled with how to help her. Unfortunately in those days, horrific practices such as lobotomies weren’t unheard of. And more unfortunately, her father decided to proceed with this possible “cure.” The procedure ultimately left her unable to walk or talk for years. 

It’s quite a fascinating yet tragic story that I think I need to read in its entirety. If you can even say there was a silver lining to this story, it’s that it prompted a lot of great work by the Kennedy family for those with disabilities including the start of the Special Olympics in 1968.

I can’t imagine the direction we would have received for Hannah back in the 1940s. Heck, there are still MDs in 2017 who don’t have current information and still paint these babies’ lives as “less than.”

While I’m nervous about Hannah’s future and expect the most out of it, I’m also grateful she was born in modern times where a bulk of our society do see her potential.