Barbara: I Was Really Sick When I Was a Baby

Barbara Script excerpt

Barbara: I was really sick when I was a baby.

Becky: You were?

Barbara: Yeah, very sick.

Becky: Tell me more, if you want.

Barbara: They said I was, I weighed five pounds when I was born.

Becky: That is how you became disabled?

Barbara: Yep.

Becky: Were you born premature?

Barbara: Yeah. I was in an incubator.

Becky: Where did you grow up?

Barbara: In Philadelphia when I was really little. I had good times at my mom and dad. I had cats when I was little. I love cats.

Becky: You love cats?

Barbara: Yeah.

Becky: Cats are very cute. I like cats.

Barbara: Me too.

Becky: And you went to school?

Barbara: Yeah. I went to different schools and then eventually I went to Elwin.

Sally: Before you went to Elwin did you go to the same schools as your sisters and brothers?

Barbara: No, they went to different schools.

Sally: So then in the morning when everyone was going off to school, they would go to one school and you would go to a different one?

Barbara: Yeah.

Sally: How did that make you feel?

Barbara: It made me feel funny.

Barbara: I didn’t do a lot at Elwin so my mom teached me a little bit at home. I liked that when she teached me a little bit.

Sally: Did you wish you were going with your brothers and sisters to school?

Barbara: Yeah.

Sally: Yeah?

Becky: You did?

Barbara: Yeah.

Becky: And have you had any of those feelings being different since then?

Barbara: I grew up real nice.

Becky: Yeah.

Barbara: Yeah.

Becky: Tell me a little about where you live.

Barbara: Where I live, I’m not happy there ‘cause I live with three guys. Its hard living with three guys.

Becky: Does anybody have a disability where you live?

Barbara: Yeah they're all in wheelchairs. I feel sorry for the other guys because they have to stay in the wheelchair. They can't get up and walk around.

Becky: If you could live somewhere where you were happier, what would that look like?

Barbara: I’d like to live with some other people. That would be really great so I could walk around. This place I can't walk around. I can't go up to the stores or anything.

Becky: But now you want to live independently.

Barbara: Yeah.

Becky: Yeah. But in a better situation?

Barbara: Yeah.

Becky: Yeah.