Disrupted Lives

Many memoirs have been written about children with physical and/or mental disorders and how families are affected. Here is a new one with heart strings pulled taut yet with a firm hand on the wheel. Elayne Vick has written about the life of her 52 year old son in "Disrupted Lives" and how her family handled the tragedy, even through the horrible disruption of their lives. She has dedicated the book to the families of handicapped children everywhere. With good reason too, for there are many plans and arrangements that need to be created for these children and their families. She describes how to apply for guardianship, governmental resources, and medical help, which can provide lifetime care for the child into adulthood. Elayne Vick begins her story when her youngest son, Andy, is two and half and begins to have uncontrollable seizures. With a well-planned life in a small North Texas town, she is at the not-yet-wise age of 27. She, her husband, and their two older sons are suddenly caught up in a whirlwind as they try to adjust to the tragedy, look for reasons for the boy's seizures, and seek medical help-of which very little was to be found in 1967. They eventually realize they must leave their home and supporting family members for a large metroplex some 90 miles to the south. They struggle to find a place to live, jobs, schools for the older sons, and day care for Andy. Everything they do must be planned around him. The entire family is impacted, and it falls primarily to Elayne and her husband to manage all of it as best they can in a new environment. The family carries on through the 1960s and 70s when little was really known about the causes of epilepsy. Even worse, brain damage accompanies Andy's seizures, and the boisterous child everyone knew disappears and another appears in his place. This shocking development adds a whole other, unchartered dimension to their struggles. With the help of the Texas Mental Health Mental Retardation Agency, Elayne's family finally finds diagnostic and respite care. Certainly not everything they needed, but it leads them to a vital trail of life-long care for Andy. The agency continues to this day to provide vital social services for handicapped individuals, but there are many holes in this support. It was estimated in 2008 that there were as many as 480,000 intellectually handicapped Texans, yet the state is 37th on the national list for spending on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are medically fragile and/or have behavioral problems. Texas has a long way to go to serve these residents in a satisfactory manner, but for the almost half million affected, it's all Texas currently provides. By the time this book ends, we feel that Elayne's son has been fortunate to have used the system in place in Texas to build a restricted but cheerful life at age 52 with his own limited personality and abilities. The same can be said of the family, as each has forged productive and fulfilling lives for themselves as best they can. Terrible disruptions similar to those in this story have caused many people to alter their lives far from what they may once have dreamed, as did this family. We can all take heart in this gripping story of courage, patience, and endurance in the face of adversity. This memoir can provide help for families coping with handicapped members, particularly as everyone grows older, possibly without estate plans and strategies for lifetime care. To aid readers and researchers, this volume closes with a section on the history of the Texas State-Supported Living Centers for mentally handicapped Texans.