At the final choir concert of the year. Miss M and the Jazz Fusion group that met after school lead off with a four song set. M plays the piano. Dreyton is again in the Premier Jazz group singing for the third year.
I cried when the Premier Jazz choir sang Miss You like they do every year. It is an ending song and endings are worth crying about for a moment or two.
But then the concert moved on to other choirs and more beautiful music and as always time passed and thoughts were diverted.
It was a long concert, filled with good music. When the last song ended I went to help with Booster Club business. People milled around and slowly cleared out. And finally the choir director appeared at our table. We talked for a few moments, I complemented him on the Superman cape that they Premier Jazz choir had given him. Everyone looks good in a Superman cape.
Then I said to him, "So about the trip tomorrow." The two Jazz groups are going to Central Washington University in Ellensburg for a festival. "I just wanted to make sure that you know Miss M is diabetic."
He looked at me quizzically.
"You did know that right?"
He replied, " No, I never look at those health alerts [the nurse sends out]. I just file them."
Now there are lots of ways that I could take what he said. But at that moment I was grateful to hear that he didn't see my daughter's disablity.
Every parent and person with a disability spends a large part of their life dealing with the ever present issues of the disability. Sometimes we are so close to the problem we can't see the person very well. And sometimes in our fluster and bluster to receive the needed care and attention, we cause others to miss seeing that person living with the disability is much more than the disability.
It can be a Catch 22. But some times it isn't, and those days are sweet.
