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PAGE 6—The Southern Cross, December 23,1976
DCCW Notes
Judy Lyberger
‘MY DREAM COME TRUE’
“When I was a girl about 17, I used to
dream the dreams of a young girl. I
would marry Prince Charming and settle
down and have a beautiful family.
I could see it all so clearly then. I
would have daughter and I would call
her Jennifer. She and I would spend
hours together doing those things which
mothers do with their daughters.
She would learn from me the many
things I had learned from my own
mother and in which I had developed
some expertise. Jennifer would not be a
normal everyday girl, no she would be
valedictorian of her class and she would
be all the things that girls dream of ever
being.
She would be a cheerleader and a
winner of a beauty contest. She would
never want for a date because the boys
would be lined up anxious to ask her
out. This would be my Jennifer, my
daughter, my dream.
had given birth to a baby girl. My
thoughts scurried wild as I gave
thanksgiving for Jennifer, my dream
come true. But that happiness was not
to last, for by the next day my doctor
had dolefully told me that Jennifer -
my Jennifer -- had Down’s syndrome.
My whole body and brain shook and
, shook in revulsion -- Jennifer was
Monogoloid. What may happen, one out
of every 600 to 700 births had to
happen to me. Stupid, damnable
chromosome abnormality.
I took Jennifer home ashamed and
filled with anger that my long treasured
dream should crash so bluntly to earth
and shatter.
My friends consoled me and confided
that they had avoided having such
children by using the process known as
amniocentesis. If your baby in the
womb is found to have any disease it
can be easily, safely, and quickly
aborted. Perhaps if I had done as they
had my sleepless agony would not exist.
Time went by and I married the man
of my heart and we settled down in a
comfortable home. And it was within
two years that I was expecting my first
baby. My eagerness knew no boundaries
as the momentus day drew closer and
closer. I could almost see Jennifer’s
beautiful face already before me. I
could hear the laughter in her voice, I
could feel the warmth of her loving
hand. The baby came but it was a boy.
My initial disappointment quickly
vanished as I came to love that husky
fullback I had given birth to.
The six years that went past were
long years until the day that I learned I
was pregnant once more. Still the
dream, still the portrait hope of
Jennifer. But it was a boy once more,
delivered with some complications but
again I learned to love him very much.
But despite these two beautiful and
healthy sons, I still could not quiet my
fairytale heart whispering for that little
princess I could kiss goodnight and
spend moments of encouragement with
before her first date. ‘Please God,’ I
begged, ‘give me a girl.’
Within five years I was pregnant once
more. This time my mind was made up
-- it must be a girl, it must be Jennifer.
The moment finally came and I could
hardly contain my joy when I saw that I
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Time passed and my life went on.
The boys were growing strong and were
rich blessings to their Dad and me. Then
there was Jennifer. Jennifer is now 8
years old. And there is ho way I can
describe her. When I am out in the
garden, she is there by my side with her
tiny trowel. When I am in the kitchen
she is there tugging at my dress wanting
to help me. When I am reading she is
there climbing on my lap with a love
letter to me. When her father comes
home from work she is the first at the
door with arms outstretched. When we
go to bed she is the last to leave our
company. I see her in the morning with
the happiest sunrise smile I have ever
seen; I can feel her warm arms reach
about me as she hugs and kisses me
goodnight. What a strange phenomenon.
She has but one more chromosome than
other people in the world and how
different that makes her. In a world of
coldness she is kindness. In a world of
brutality she is gentleness. In a world of
hate and fighting, she is love and peace.
No, Jennifer will never be valedictorian,
nor a cheerleader. And she will never
win a beauty contest, but there is
nothing I would exchange her for, for
she has stolen away my heart with her
simple yet unaffected love. She is my
dream come true.”
(From The Arlington Catholic Herald —
Oct. 7, 1976)
AQUINAS DEBATERS - For
the first time, Aquinas High
School fielded a Debate Team for
the Region 4A competition. The
debaters, Barbara Parsons,
Marianne Moss, Jemi Nicoll and
Sarah McBride, were coached by
Mr. Bill Wilkin. The team placed
second in the region competition.
Shown in picture: Marianne Moss
and Barbara Parsons preparing for
the rebuttal at the competition
site.
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ONE-ACT PLAY WINS IN
REGION -- For the fourth
consecutive year and for five out
of seven times, Augusta’s Aquinas
High School’s Drama Department
under the direction of Reverend
John Fitzpatrick, has won the
Region 4A Trophy for the One
Act Play Competition. The play,
Androcles and the Lion, will be
entered into the State competition
on January 8, 1977 in Athens.
Shown in top picture are: Jerry
Franklin as the Emperor; Steve
Mirshak as the Lion and Starr
Wright as Androcles. (At right)
Jack Markwalter as the Captain
and Rebecca Shipps as Lavinia, a
Christian captive.
Marriage Encounter:
Rediscovery
r ’ 11 n
Around The Diocese
Obituaries
* Mr. Daniel Julian Nowakowski of Savannah, November 21st
* Mrs. Josephine Howard Robinson of Savannah, December 15th
Marriages
* Miss Flora Kay Shoemaker of Savannah, Ga., and Mr. Michael Lee Sloan of
Garden City, Ga., November 20 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist,
Savannah.
Necrology
* Rev. John A. Morris, December 24, 1957.
* Rev. M.J. Rice, December 26, 1881.
The following three priests’ month of death is unknown:
* Rev. Thomas P. Hayden, 1941.
* Rev. T.J. Morrow, 1940.
* His Eminence Ignatius Cardinal Persico,
Fourth Bishop of Savannah.
BY DR. HELLEGERS
Pregnancy Disability
Aid Ruling
WASHINGTON (NC) - The U.S.
Supreme Court has ruled, in effect, that
“if you’re talking about disability
benefits, the fetus is a person, but if
you’re talking about abortion, the fetus
is a tumor,” according to Dr. Andrew
Hellegers, director of the Kennedy
Institute for the Study of Human
Reproduction and Bioethics.
The Court’s logic is “absolutely
internally absurd,” he said.
Criticized
Organization of Women people and
lobby together on this.”
He said groups such as Birthright,
which seek to help women with
problem pregnancies, would be better
able to help if working women who
became pregnant were eligible for
disability benefits.
The Court’s ruling was also criticized
sharply by Father Donald Conroy,
Representative for Family Life for the
U.S. Catholic Conference.
BY JERRY
AND MARGARET DULOHERY
At a time when it seems that most of
the news we get reflects the worsening
problems around the world, it is like a
breath of fresh air to hear about
something hopeful and positive for a
change.
For the past year in Savannah, a
special program has been developing.
The program, called Marriage
Encounter, offers an opportunity for
married couples to look deeply at their
relationships - successes and failures;
how they truly feel about one another;
their joys, frustrations, ambitions,
hopes, fears.
Purpose of Marriage Encounter is to
make a good marriage GREAT.
Emphasis is on communication between
husband and wife, who spend a
weekend together, away from the
children, the distractions and tensions
of everyday life, to concentrate on
talking deeply with each other.
A Marriage Encounter is presented by
Catholic team couples and a Catholic
priest. Its orientation is Catholic, but a
certain number of spaces are reserved
each weekend for couples who are not
Catholic.
Marriage Encounter starts with the
love you have for your spouse (and your
spouse’s for you) and helps to build,
expand and deepen your relationship.
You must have the love to begin with,
and you must do all the building,
expanding and deepening yourselves,
together.
Marriage Encounter provides the
tools and shows you how they can, and
have been used. The rest is up to you.
Weekends are oriented strictly to
individual couple dynamics, not group
dynamics.
Each couple is given a blank envelope
and asked to make an offering at the
end of the weekend. No one is ever
refused the opportunity to make a
Marriage Encounter Weekend because of
a lack of funds. A $10.00 registration
fee confirms food and lodging.
Besides being an opportunity for
couples, Marriage Encounter is also a
beautiful way for sisters and priests to
revitalize their commitment to the
people of God and experience His love
more fully in their lives.
The next weekends in Savannah are:
Feb. 19, 29, 20; March 11, 12, 13.
Weekend is scheduled for Albany on
January 28, 29, 30.
MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER RESERVATION FORM
His-Her Name
Address
Church-Parish (His)
Wedding Date
Weekend Preference
Last Name Area Code-Phone Number
City-State Zip Code
(Hers)
Month-Date-Year
First Second
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER
Deposit Couple:
Bob & Nancy Merchen
1698 Stillwood Dr.
Savannah, Ga. 31406
1-912-925-3819
Recruiting Couple:
Kershaw & Lynn Getty
9 Ryerson Dr.
Savannah, Ga. 31406
1-912-925-2589
Hellegers has served as the major
expert witness supporting female
employees of the General Electric
Company who sought to have GE’s
policy of excluding maternity leave
from coverage in disability programs
ruled unconstitutional.
The GE employees won several lower
court battles, but lost in the nation’s
highest court, which held in a 6-3 vote
that it was not unconstitutional to
exclude maternity leave from coverage.
Civil rights and women’s groups have
already begun efforts to pass federal
legislation to require that disability
benefits cover maternity leave, and Dr.
Hellegers says he is “very optimistic”
about the prospects of passage.
But, Dr. Hellegers, an outspoken
opponent of abortion, said, “I hope that
this time the Rightrto-Life movement
people get together with the National
"it is reared that the etlects of this
decision will include increased pressure
for women to defer starting a family as
well as to consider abortion in cases of
pregnancy,” he said.
The decision, he said, “demonstrates
an apparent blindness to the needs of
working parents and especially shows a
lack of sensitivity to the needs of
married working women, two-thirds of
whom are in the work force out of
economic necessity.”
The decision “also supports personnel
policies and practices of some American
businesses which too frequently regard
the family life of the employees as
secondary to the goals of economic
productivity,” he said.
Dr. Hellegers argued in his testimony
that pregnancy should be covered as a
disability for medical reasons.
ONLY LIGHTED OUR HEARTS -- Cardinal Luis Aponte of San Juan
kisses the charred remains of the statue of Our Lady of Providence. Only
hours before the newly restored 19th-century statue was to be crowned in
San Juan, vandals entered the cathedral in Old San Juan and burned the
statue. The cardinal told the huge crowd gathered for the Mass, “The
match that burned the statue only lighted the hearts of Mary’s sons and
daughters.” (NC Photo from El Nuevo Dia)
In Savannah
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