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By Richard | July 19, 2008
Ann Bauer | Washington Post | Opinion
There is a family down the street whom I envy.
I’ve never met them. They live in a two-story white house — a mother, a father and their grown son. Outside is a trimmed yard with rosebushes and a wooden arbor where the men work on weekends.
The dad, who looks to be near 60, pushes a wheelbarrow or carries a set of shears. The son could be 20 — the age of my oldest child — or 40. He is a short, egg-shaped man. He walks behind his father, carrying large shovels and bags of dirt and the like. He works tirelessly, from what I can see, and talks most of the time.
On weekdays, when I am taking my youngest child to school, I sometimes see him holding a cloth lunch bag and boarding a small bus. I imagine that at work he is as cheerful and productive as he appears to be with his father on Sunday afternoons.
The fact that this man has Down syndrome is clear. He has the telltale almond-shaped eyes and short limbs. I know that he could suffer from any number of medical conditions, from heart defects to epilepsy, and that his cognitive functioning is probably impaired.
Still, I envy his parents. MORE
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