She Will NOT Grow Out Of It !

[INDENT] Charismatic girl, handicapped from birth, jumps from a handicap-elementary to a normal high school, proves her detractors spectacularly wrong, and becomes a thriving professional helper, not helpee. Young and single professional woman meets, grows, travels and laughs through many adventures while pursuing patriotic employment in her nation's capital. [INDENT] Pam Silverwood, B.S., M.A. and SLP/CCC (Speech-Language Pathologist, Certificate of Clinical Competence) was born with the worst kind of Spina Bifida, and she was written off by her doctors, who said she would never walk or talk and she'd be mentally retarded. Her parents were advised to institutionalize her at birth, but her father said, "No, she's part of our family; she's coming home with us." [INDENT] She walked, she talked, and against all expectation eventually became Supervisor of Speech-Language Pathology at WALTER REED ARMY MEDICAL CENTER, where she met, diagnosed, and treated First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, U.S. Senator Karl E. Mundt, U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and grievously injured U.S. Army officers and soldiers, including 4-Star General Lewis B. Hershey. [INDENT] FIRST PAGE: "Good morning, Pam. The Commanding General wants to see you right away!""Oh, that's funny; you guys are really good!""Yes, we know. And you really are wanted in the General's office -- STAT! Here's the message; you're excused from the staff What could I have done? I thought minutes later, as I run-skittered through the polished hallways. I can't have killed anyone! Speech therapy is not a lethal discipline! This was my fourth year at Walter Reed Army Hospital; I had never been in the Commanding General's office for any reason. Called on the carpet now, without a clue, I was terrified. My feet were still racing my heart as I turned into the outer office... .... [INDENT] LAST CHAPTER (EPILOGUE): [INDENT] In all, I learned from my own life -- and those of my patients and students -- that great things may happen, if you hope and try; that pediatricians and surgeons -- even speech-language pathologists -- sometimes don't know, and when they don't know, they may sometimes just make something up, or tell you something that their professor made up long ago. First, they may tell you something so pessimistic that it demolishes all your hope ("she'll never walk or talk") when hope is everything to you. Or, second, they may tell you something so optimistic ("he'll grow out of it") that it lulls you into complacency -- into waiting till the child is older, when a completely successful intervention may be impossible. Between these opposites, medical or paramedical professionals may sometimes advise intervention that is ill-advised. As a parent, educator, counselor, minister/priest/rabbi/imam, advocate, social worker or attorney, it is your job both to hope and to do -- never letting either down for the sake of the other; it is your job to get second opinions -- and sometimes, with or against "good" advice, you may still prayerfully have to say the equivalent of "No, she's part of our family; she's coming home with us!" Your daughter (or son, or patient, or student, or client or parishioner, or plaintiff or defendant) is depending on you for that. I wish you all the help of Heaven and earth with these all-important decisions. [INDENT] END OF SAMPLE TEXT. [INDENT] READER: For every outcast and everyone in danger of feeling oneself an outcast. Whoever you are--whatever your handicap or other condition of birth or experience--there's hope here for you. For every parent of a physically imperfect child, yes, but also for anyone and everyone handicapped by perceived inferiority of whatever nature. Whatever your reason for feeling incomplete, this memoirist knows your struggle, understands you, and prays for your self-acceptance and success.