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April 2000, Page 3.
Index of articles.
New Vicar:
background,
his son,
his holidays.
Our new vicar's son - Peter
Dear Church Members,
I thought this month that I would introduce my family. Shuna and I have four children: Caroline (13), Peter (11), Fiona (8) and Neil (2). (We have also lost a baby: Ben died in utero 5 years ago.) We have a cat, fish, mice and gerbils. But when I asked the girls what to write about them they didn’t want to answer, so I think I’ll tell you about Peter, who has Down’s Syndrome.
We were very fortunate (or do I mean God had it well planned?) that when Peter was born our church in Bexleyheath had experience of Down’s Syndrome (which is caused by an extra chromosome at conception, and results in both physical and mental disabilities). We had two young women with Down’s Syndrome in the congregation, and we knew that they could be very happy and fulfilled people. I guess I wasn’t quite so prepared for Peter’s stubbornness.
Peter’s health is fine: he had some hearing problems when very young, but none of the more serious things like heart complaints. He has Coeliac Disease, which means he can’t eat wheat, oats, barley or rye or any foods made from them, and that makes kitchen life a bit complicated.
However, Peter’s mental handicap is severe, and his speech is very poor. We use Makaton sign language with him, and I daresay you will see it in children’s songs at church. He is much better at understanding pictures than words, and we use photos to explain to him what is going to happen. He can follow a story on video, and likes songs on tape.
On the negative side, Peter has no sense of personal boundaries, and he’ll disrupt others’ toys and games. He’s also an escape artist, and has little road sense. But on the positive side he’s very friendly, and he has found his way into the hearts of our congregation in Hanford. To get to know him, try doing numbers, letters and simple drawings with him.
Mental handicap raises all sorts of questions about faith, doesn’t it? I’ll not talk about them now - but don’t let them put you off getting to know Peter!
John Hartley
Peter Hartley, who has Down's Syndrome.
This picture of Peter was taken at Bolling Special School in 2001. Peter is doing "construction work", but he also does real lessons as well, and we are very pleased with his progress.
(There was no picture in the original parish magazine article.)