by Katie Weller

Created on: May 17, 2008

We have a woman that comes to our house every day, Her name is Jerri. She was born mentally handicapped and has the intellectual capacity of around that of a seven year old. But what most people don't realize is that even though a person is handicapped, it has no effect on their ability to love.

We met her about ten years ago and have been close to her ever since. She gets paid monthly by a welfare program as a normal person would. Her sister, who is not handicapped took advantage of this and began stealing money from her, or stealing items from the local WAL*MART and having Jerri return them. My Mother found out about this and with legal help, became Jerrri's payee.

She is one of the most loving people I have ever met, and exceeds my understanding in ways different than intelligently. She is tender, sweet, kind, and loving. Always willing to help with the kids, or with the cleaning.

She attended, and graduated high school in the special ed. class.

Every time I go somewhere with Jerri, people look at us strangely. One day we were at the store and she told me she wanted a whoopee cushion and giggled for about ten seconds and then pushed it and out cam it's funny noise. She did this twice. I do this with my friends all of the time and we laugh a lot longer than she did, and we push it a lot more times than she did. A lady came up to me and asked "What's wrong with her?" I replied "Nothing's wrong with her. And since when is it illegal to have a little fun in public?" She did not reply, just walked away. Another incident was, we were in the store and some teen age boys were obviously making fun of her,while I was in a different aisle of the store. I walked passed them and they began to hit on me. I looked at them and said "If you're going to hit on me, maybe you should be a little more considerate of one of my best friends." Again, they did not reply. If you tell a person that a handicapped person is no different is no different than them, you are lying. A mentally handicapped person and a young man with no problems are different, he is smarter than her, but that's all. So they will have a bad reaction, but when you confront a person about the way that they're treating a person who is a bit different, they generally don't know what to say, I don't know why other people look at her in disgust or shame, she's such a great person and has a better character than almost anyone.

Although her sister has deprived her of love, compassion, and care, she still remains in contact with her.

Her mother died of a chronic illness and her father choked to death.

She is able to live on her own, and take care of herself.

She likes that Partridge family along with David and Sean Cassidy. She's almost always singing one of their songs in her cheerful manner.

So if you think that you, and a mentally handicapped person are exceedingly different in more ways than one, you're probably right. I dare you one day to walk in her shoes and still be he happiest person alive.

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