My grandfather was the oldest of 6. But there was a 7th. A child with Down’s.
It would be recognized today that my grandfather’s mother was obsessive-compulsive. She had to have things perfect. This was no easy task at the turn of the 20th century without modern conveniences, but she got things as close to perfect as she could and even took in other people’s laundry for extra household income. My grandfather told my mom that she beat his younger brother until his bum bled for messing his pants...he was probably a toddler.
The Down’s child was a girl and his mom’s last. It was kind of a little known/talked about story, but my grandfather told my mom, and she told me about her existence.
My grandfather was the one family and neighbours went to when some horrible job had to be done...drowning kittens, taking his disabled sister on the train to the home, etc. He was about in his early 20s or so when he took her there. It wasn’t something he wanted to do. He was a real softie and tender-hearted and he told my mom it tore him up to do it, but one respected their parents back then and he did care for his mom more than his dad despite her OCD and abuse of at least one sibling at least that one time. He was probably doing it for her...to help her.
I don’t think the child was in the home long. She died there. I got into genealogy in the late 90s/early 2000s and confirmed her existence. Her age of death was 7 years old. Sarah Ann Neatha was her name. They called her Nan.
Yours is a sad story, and it’s good of you to acknowledge her existence. I think it was common back then to hide children with downs, or who were otherwise physically or mentally incapacitated in some manner. It was a thing of shame back then.
Back in the early 70’s I remember a woman with downs. She was a resident in the nursing home and at the time, she was in her mid 50’s. She was the sweetest person I’ve ever met in my life. Even then, her age was remarkable. Her mother took good care of her until the mother died, which is why Mary ended up in the nursing home.
I don’t even remember the point of the OP, but the other posts caused me to reflect on other downs kids I’ve known over the years, and most particularly, the one mentioned.
People with downs are ‘’Way Kewl’’ :)
That’s so sad.
The 7th child (counting one baby who died at birth) in my mother’s family was born with DS. But she was born in the late 1950’s. After my grandparents passed on, she continued to live with one son’s family. She lived into her early 40’s.