In the first part of this book, the author gathers testimonies from people who live directly with severe handicap or who share their lives with a disabled family member.
Each voice tells the story of a difficult birth, an illness, or a trauma that has forever marked a person's existence as "different"—and the disorientation, suffering, and struggle to live that follow.
Yet, as the author herself writes in the introduction: "These stories..., though they deal with great tragedies, share one thing in common: serenity.... Because in the world of handicap there is no middle ground: either you reject the 'different' person—and then comes abandonment, segregation, concealment—or you accept them, finding the strength to face everything and always looking for the best in every situation...."
We hear from the mother who dries her tears to stand beside her son, fighting through the hard battle of rehabilitation and integration. We hear from the wife who, almost smiling, recounts her long, devoted care for her husband in a coma—and the computer program she created that pulled him back from total aphasia and set him on the path to healing.
Equally moving and powerful are the testimonies of those directly affected: some are well-known figures in music, sport, politics, and film; others, after what befell them, have devoted themselves to fighting for the rights and dignity of handicapped people.
Anyone who lives alongside these people ought to reflect on these testimonies born of suffering and strength of spirit, I think—to understand, to learn, to know how to be present.
Throughout runs a call for solidarity and respect for rights. What is rejected—as demeaning and harmful—is pity, sentimentality, and false, temporary concern.
What is striking is where people find the strength to go on living in such difficult circumstances. Some have found their anchor in "accepting themselves with their new limits." Others have found it in the will to succeed in the field closest to their heart, handicap or no. Some have found salvation in family; others have found it agonizingly hard to "help their families digest the handicap." Some come to see, "only now," what "really matters—interest in others and the drive to fight for common goals." Some survive and resist despair only because they discover they matter to someone who cannot live without their love. And there is a priest, paraplegic after an accident, sent as a missionary to Africa, who discovered there the gift "of being a handicapped person in a wheelchair!"
The second part of the book collects testimonies from people who have adopted handicapped children, describes innovative therapies, and addresses the challenges of school integration and "handicap-proof" access to work. Data on the prevalence of various kinds of handicap and the major national associations are included as well.
In the introduction, the author states that she wrote this book in the conviction that "to solve certain problems, we must make them known."
With this work, she has made a substantial contribution.
- M. Teresa Mazzarotto, 1995
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