This parent's essay didn't sit right with me

Photo by Elinor Carucci in The CutBy Louise KinrossOn Sunday, I clicked on this piece in New York Magazine: Every Parent Wants to Protect Their Child. I Never Got the Chance.There’s this adorable image of a toddler who appears healthy, but who, we learn, has cystic fibrosis (CF). CF is a progressive genetic disease that causes damage to the lungs and digestive system. It shortens life, although some people with the condition are living...

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Young carers and other pieces of disability news

Photo by CBC NewsBy Louise KinrossYouth who help care for a disabled or ill brother or sister were in the spotlight this week at the Young Carers Forum in Toronto, organized by The Change Foundation, an Ontario health think tank.Alyssa Van Wynen, 21, centre above, spoke to CBC about her experience supporting her older sister Tiffany, left, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. “With my sister, she lost out on a lot of stuff,...

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'We're the custom tailor for people who use wheelchairs'

Koolway co-founders Jennifer Gallienne and John Cook with head cutter, sewer and pattern designer Vienna Liu.By Louise Kinross Jennifer Gallienne is co-founder of Koolway Sports, a premium Canadian line of coats, capes, boots and mitts designed for children and adults who use wheelchairs.“Our outerwear is for people in wheelchairs who want to go out and enjoy life and be warm, comfortable and dry,” Jennifer says. “The reason people come...

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Self-compassion may fuel parent resiliency

By Louise KinrossGreater self-compassion was related to less stress and depression in parents of adults with developmental disabilities, according to a study in the Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.The findings are based on self-report measures of 56 Toronto parents who attended one of two six-week groups as their children waited for services after leaving high school. One was a mindfulness group where they were...

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'We just fell in love with her at first sight'

Catherine and Trish Emmons and daughter Priscilla, 3, are the focus of our new A Family Like Mine video. Priscilla, known as Cilla, was born dependent on drugs to a mother who couldn't care for her. She spent her first month in the neonatal intensive care unit in pain, on morphine, inconsolable. At nine months, Trish and Catherine adopted her. "When we first brought her home, we noticed that she would have huge temper tantrums when we would leave her," Catherine recalls. "And I don't mean by leaving the house. I mean she would be in the living...

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Stares at the mall

Many of you know Sue Robins as the author behind The invisible mom, one of our most read posts about social isolation among families of children with disabilities. Sue recently took a poetry class and wrote this piece, which she says is fiction, based on her experiences raising her son with Down syndrome, and stories other families like hers have shared with her. Louise Stares at the mall By Sue Robins Always the caboose He’s minding...

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Finding the music in everyone

By Louise Kinross The other day I posted a call for story ideas on the BLOOM Facebook page. Karen Bojti wrote: “Another ‘out of the box’ person I have discovered is Laura Nadine. You can Google her. She’s a professional violinist, a wandering minstrel and music teacher. She is also a woman on the autism spectrum. She is teaching Charlie to play the violin.”I hopped over to Enlightened Audio, which is Laura’s website, and this sentence jumped...

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