He's Different ; He's My Brother

Written by:
Felicia Faircloth Lilley

My daddy stood outside the delivery room as my baby brother was being born. When he heard the baby cry, daddy fell to his knees and wept. He had a feeling something was wrong with the child. We did not find this out for sure until my brother, Jay, was two and a half months old.

THe doctors said that it was RUEBELLA (ru-bella) SYNDROME. This is a birth defect resulting from a woman getting the measles during pregnancy. This causes blindness, deafness, hear and brain damage.

My brother did not grow up like other children. Because Jay could not see and hear, he did not enjoy playing with the kinds of toys other children played with. Instead, he liked to chew on my dad's leather belt and squeeze balloons.

Sometimes, he would entertain himself for hours by putting a sock on one hand. Then he would take it off and put it on the other hands. He also liked to lay on the floor and stare at the sun.

The fact that my brother could never have a normal childhood bothered me alot. I knew that he would never go fishing and hunting with our daddy or do other things that a little boy usually does.

This made me sad. Then, I would notice him sitting by himself,smiling and laughing. I realized that God was keeping him appy and that as long as my brother lived, God would always take care of him.

Even though he was different, my brother and I still played together while growing up. I made different games to keep us both entertained. When he would play with his balloons and things, I would take them away from him and tease him.

THe doctors told us that he needed to make his legs strong so that he could learn to walk. I made a game of it. We would lay on the floor and I would put my feet against his. Then I would bend my legs to make his straight and straighten mine to make his bend. It was almost like riding a see saw. WE wold do this for a long time.

Sometimes, I would lay him on his stomach as I stood over him. I would pick him up a little and drag him across the floor. This made him use his hands and knees which helped him learn to crawl. If I wanted to him to go to a different room to play, I would drag him through the house by his feet. He thought this was funny.

My brother and I spent alot of time together while we were growing up when he was not in school.

The many schools that Jay went to were not like the ones that most children went to. When he was four years old, he went to a school three days a week for three years. Here, he started wearing braces. The braces were to support his legs and make them stronger.

Because the braces could be locked in the sitting position, he learned to sit up and later learned to crawl. Some doctors told mama and daddy to put him away in a state hospital and forget about him.