This slim volume gathers the stories and testimonies of mothers, care workers, and people with Down syndrome as they navigate their own paths of growth. "I am Dario, Valeria, Marco, Diego, Francesca—not all the same, but each one shaped by their own family, their own tastes, interests, pleasures and sorrows, passions." The families, the mothers and fathers, respond to their child's birth and life in their own ways too, and these brief accounts capture that truth well. The moments shared here—from birth through early development, school years, adulthood, work, friendship, and love—are genuinely precious.
The book also aims to foster exchange and support among parents. As one mother writes: "It's not enough when doctors answer our questions. When another parent answers us, from their own experience, it's different. We believe more readily in the positive things they tell us about our children's possibilities and abilities. When we see the peace they've found after their own period of grief, when we see the trust and pride in their voice as they speak of their son or daughter with Down syndrome—we begin to think that if they could do it, so can we."
As Andrea Canavaro notes in his introduction, a book like this would have been unimaginable in earlier times.
- Nicole Schulthes, 2000