Heroes For Cam, the list continues
Posted in Cameron's Chronicles by: Kater
When I was in Montreal in October 2005 for my baby shower, I stayed at a pal’s place for the night. Needing something to read I picked up a book in a pile from her room and proceeded to get fully involved with the characters in the first few pages. I ran out of time and left the book behind when I returned to Ottawa. But I could never get the book out of my mind. Something about the writing pulled at me, I knew I needed to get back to it, in fact I needed to own it. I began to look for it, but only casually because meantime I was eight months preggers and reading nothing but books on how to give birth/be a mom/alternatives to drugs blah blah. I thought of the book often, wondering what the story would hold for me. I received a gift card for Chapters for Christmas right after Cam was born but never had time to do anything with it. By this point Cam had been diagnosed with Down syndrome and I was still in the process of accepting the news. One day Arras and I were shopping and I had the gift card with me: I knew exactly what I would buy with - The Memory Keeper’s Daugther. The book stayed by my bedside for a time before I actually got to it, and I remember one day thinking I would have a rest on my bed while Cam slept. I reached for the book and thought “I may as well read the back of this book that I’ve been depserate to find - I have no idea what it’s about” and the back cover revealed that this story was about a baby born with Down syndrome. Time stopped, sound stopped. I suddenly knew why I had been needing this book.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a phenomenally well-written book by author Kim Edwards with a dramatic story that draws any reader in. Specifically for people who have experience or familiarity with the world of people with special needs, it describes the tragic mistake made by a doctor in an age when perceptions about Down syndrome were based on fear, a lack of understanding and a great lack of information. The story that follows is rich with the joys that accompany a woman who raises young Pheobe, a girl with Ds, as Pheobe achieves wonderful great things from rolling over, to dancing, to falling in love. Everyone should read this book.
The article in Reader’s Digest focusses on 19 year old Krystal’s experience auditioning for both roles as the older character of Pheobe and the child, preparing for the role, and working in an environment few people with special needs ever experience. Krystal rises above the “diagnosis” she was given that her reading level is at a fourth grade one, memorizes lines, and takes direction. In shattering the stereotypes that some people have about people with developmental dlays, she also helps her mother banish her own mispaced beliefs that actors and movie stars are self-centered.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is produced by the Lifetime Network, co-stars Emily Watson and Hugh Thompson, an actor I worked with on Two Words For Snow (Volcano Theatre), and is one of the best stories I’ve ever read.
Other Heroes for Cam:




























