Monday, August 27, 2007
Randy DeRose has his eye on a Harley-Davidson.
With slicked-back hair and an easy smile, Randy has been doing his best to earn one since his brother gave him his first ride. But even if he meets his reading and writing marks, it's not going to happen.
Arms weakened by Down syndrome, the 40-year-old would never be able to hold up a 700-pound motorcycle, never mind the rest. But it's a goal to work toward, says his mother Lena DeRose, and Randy, the youngest of six children, is always up for a challenge.
The 84-year-old Springville mother should know. She has had her son by her side since the day four decades ago when she told off a doctor for suggesting she leave her newborn in the care of the state. "I said 'How can you insult me like that?' "
Facing the ravages of age, including death, groundbreaking parents like Lena are among the first who have to ask themselves what will happen to their 40 and even 50-year-old mentally disabled sons or daughters once they aren't around.
When Randy was born, mentally disabled infants rarely felt the embrace of a mother or father, says Kathy Edwards, director of Recreation and Habilitation Services in Provo.
"Doctors would go to parents and say 'Don't look at them, don't touch them, take them to the training school,' " Edwards said.
The state Training School in American Fork -- now known at the Developmental Center -- took in many children during the early years of it's 75-year history, almost regardless of the level of mental disability. The center now houses about 250 people who are considered extremely disabled.
But that first generation of defiant parents shunned the Training School, did look at their children, did touch them, and by all accounts provided a good life, a life that is now coming to an end.
And so Lena, whose husband died two years ago, struggles to find a reasonable solution for her son...
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The Daily Herald
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