The Family In Brett Lott's Jewel

I read one beautifully written book Jewel by Brett Lott. As described by Lott (1991), Jewel is about a family who lives in Mississippi (Lott, 1991, p. 19). The main character Jewel Hilburn lives with her husband Leston and kids. At the age of 39, she discovers that she is pregnant and is quite worried because this will be her sixth time. After 24 hours of long labor, she gives birth to the sixth child who they name Brenda Kay. Since birth Brenda Kay was presented as a calm and quiet infant who slept most of the times. She could not do things which every kid at her age could do. That develops suspicion in Jewel who goes to visit the doctor at the time Brenda Kay was five months old. She remains shocked to find out that her daughter has Down’s syndrome, a condition which was then called as “Mongolian Idiot” (physically and mentally retarded). Jewel, however decides to support and nurse Brenda Kay at home instead of the doctors advising her to be institutionalized. Every milestone of Brenda Kay is nicely portrayed by Lott with every little emotion described
She had 5 daughters and the eldest one had Down’s. I have seen all the struggles and sufferings the family was going through which was so similar to what Jewel was facing in the novel. Being a therapist, we spend more time with patients as compared to the physician. Therefore, I feel it’s our responsibility to identify the issues of the child as well as of the parent which will speed up the acceptance of condition. After reading Jewel and witnessing my aunt’s life I can tell taking care of challenged kids is not an easy task. Hence, while dealing with such cases the therapist needs to be considerate of the feelings and emotions of the parents too. Along with the treatment of the children we should add parents counseling and education as well. This will result in better adaptation of the disabled or differently abled