I have recently read this book and it is remarkable! I would have to say that DS children are probably some of my favorite people on the earth. It is so fun to get to know, serve and love them! They are a joy to everyone's lives and they are fun to be around. The Memory Keeper's Daughter, however, is set in the year 1964. This is the time when it was still appropriate and acceptable to send these children to institutions. The caption about this book reads:
"This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love."
How do you feel about institutions? Should we still send these children with disabilities there? Would they learn more? If you were the nurse in this book, would you have taken the baby to the institution or kept the baby like she did?
"This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love."
How do you feel about institutions? Should we still send these children with disabilities there? Would they learn more? If you were the nurse in this book, would you have taken the baby to the institution or kept the baby like she did?
1 comment:
sounds like an amazing book shell. i'm definitely going to have to read it. i think institutions are sad, but back in the day parents thought it was their only option. it's amazing what we know now and how people with DS can be normal members of the community.
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