Sarah, Chaim's Mom

I met Sarah several years ago, when her son (who has Down syndrome) and Ricki were going to the same "play therapist". Ricki's appointments were always right after her son, and since he had a tendency to refuse to leave after his session (driving his Mom absolutely crazy), I saw a lot of him. Eventually Sarah learned more effective ways to deal with him, and Ricki also stopped this therapist, so I saw Sarah only rarely. During the year or so that I saw him weekly, Chaim always tried to impress Ricki, and she played the "cool and collected" teen girl. Sarah, however, has little contact with the local Down syndrome organization, always saying that she sees no reason to add a "label" to her child. So today when I saw her and Chaim waiting for a bus, I smiled and went over. "How are you? Chaim, you look great….." Then she queried as to how Ricki is doing. Ummmm… gosh o gollies, she hasn't heard yet; it figures, she not in contact with the other "Down syndrome moms"….. "I'm sorry to tell you, but Ricki passed away three and a half months ago…" I spent the next five minutes reassuring her that it was OK that she had asked, that I am OK (well, fairly OK…), and explaining what had caused Ricki's death. It was a bit burdensome to deal with her shock. But I'm sure this will occur more than once. But "Chaim" looked great…..