The Best

Summer of 2014 and Layla was starting Kindergarten and I had much to do.

Teachers are on job action from back in June and carrying on into summer - it's August and by the end of the month I am to meet with her Teacher and Education Assistant to discuss gradual entry - to discuss this huge stage in her life and mine. 

I am nervous and ready.  But, school is closed, no teach to talk to and, well, looks like school isn't even going to start come September.    For Maya who is 11 / G 6 and Sabrina 9 G4, this was pretty nice.  No school until October!
Nothing happened, so my anxious wait for the start of school was milling in my head.

Nothing.  And then there was something that would change everything....

The principal - Ms Taylor phones me and asks if she could come over and meet with Layla - I mean she already was familiar with her when I picked up the girls after school, she often met and greeted kid sister in the hallways.   But this meeting was to talk about Kindergarten and the Layla Plan.  Coming to my home was unorthodox but given the picket lines, I wasn't going to cross - nor was the wheelchair!   She told me she was bringing Layla's potential EA.  Ok, I said.  What else would I do.

They came and met with me and Layla and we discussed.  In theory this all sounded good.  Little did I know that in a month and a half when school started, that Layla's entry into public school and the years following , would be hand in hand with an assistant who is even more special than Layla.

That fateful day in the Summer of 2014 Mrs. Cameron came into Layla's life  and I tell you .... she is the best thing ever.  And the world (or even only the 12 people reading this post) needs to know this.  I sing her praises as Layla's Assistant, her pal, her care provider, her guide.   My peace of mind.
And I sing her praises now, here in the post titled "The Best", because she is.  The best - not because she is leaving the job, or because anything has happened - but just because she is. 

Welcome to Holland

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by
Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......


When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go.

Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved




.... these are not my words but they are neat, and resonate with me after having Layla.  My flight didn't just redirect, I totally went to another planet.  And I am still on it.  Its called Richmond, I'm kidding.