Each and every child is a blessing from God, and they are all unique in their own ways. Unfortunately, however, there is still a stigma towards children born with certain conditions and disabilities— one of them being Down syndrome.
While the stigma may be less apparent to those who don’t deal with the condition on a daily basis, the discrimination and hate are alive and well around us. In January of 2017, during a Citizen’s Meeting, Icelandic doctor Peter McParland even had to audacity to proudly announce that, “In Iceland, every single baby— 100% of all those diagnosed with Down syndrome- are aborted.”
While he may have just been reporting numbers, it just doesn’t seem right that someone could speak about innocent human beings in such a callous way.
Pam De Almeida often experiences this stigma in regards to her daughter Sophia who has Down syndrome.
Pam has a Facebook page called Slice of Life. “It is dedicated to capturing my perfectly imperfect life of raising a child with Down syndrome through journalistic photography and written thoughts,” she tells Daily Mail.
Pam’s honest insights about Sophia and Down syndrome have gone viral many times over. In August of 2016, she garnered headlines for a post discussing the ‘secrets’ of being a special needs mother.
Earlier that year, however, is when she really made waves, recounting an event she had experienced at a local Tim Horton’s restaurant.
She described how she and Sophia had been enjoying their food at the restaurant when they caught the eye of a few other patrons.
She writes, “Two ladies near us started to stare and whisper. This is a pretty frequent occurrence for us […] I sat there and watched these two women crane their necks to get a better look at [Sophia], completely oblivious to the fact that I was staring right back. Today it bothered me. It really bothered me.”
Shortly afterwards, when a couple approached the table, Pam was primed to expect the worst.
“Oh, great! More people who want to take a closer look!”
To Pam’s surprise, however, her daughter wasn’t greeted by more judging stares— instead, the older man gave Sophia a high-five and a handshake before turning to Pam with tears in his eyes.
“I have a story I would really like to share with you. But I am afraid I won’t get through it without choking up,” he tells her.
In her post, Pam describes the man’s story. He told her how he had watched the news the previous night and had seen a mother who had given birth to a baby who had been diagnosed with major disabilities. The mother had been on air defending her decision to keep it.
He said, “The point is, you never know a person’s impact on the world. You can never know what a person is able to do unless you give them a chance.”
The unsuspecting mother was immediately moved to tears by the kind man’s words. In the post, which has garnered almost 17,000 shares, she writes:
“That man was the first complete stranger to ever congratulate me on the birth of my daughter Sophia. He was the first complete stranger to recognize her WORTH. Her VALUE. Her BEAUTY.
In a world where my daughter’s life is whispered about, where she is stared at, this man saw her IMPORTANCE.”
As he was leaving, he uttered one phrase that reduced Pam to tears:
“You are a beautiful person. Your daughter is beautiful. Congratulations!”
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