I Am Handicapped
By: Peter Henry

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”


It was October 20th, 2005. I had just turned 59. Wow, one more year and I’ll be officially old. It’s funny, being a typical man, my mind is 18 but when I look in the mirror, I see this old guy looking back.

However, this year was different! As I watched my son Jonathan, a calm revelation came over me…I was handicapped. I was born with one less chromosome. It wasn’t anybody’s fault, it just happened.

What am I talking about you may be asking yourself? Let’s take a trip back into the past to October 12th, 1983. That was the day Jonathan was born. It was an emotional roller coaster for me to say the least. We were told he was handicapped and that if we decided to keep him, he would do well to be toilet trained by the time he was a teenager. You see, Jonathan was born with an extra chromosome. He was born with Down syndrome.

In the beginning, I was in denial. This couldn’t be happening to me…I know, an old cliché…but I’m serious, this was not, must not be happening to me. Either the doctor was wrong or God had made a mistake and given me someone else’s son. He had lost His sense of humor and was punishing me because…well for no reason!!!

Have you heard the saying, “There’s a silver lining in every cloud.”? Of course you have. For the life of me, I could not find that silver lining no matter how much alcohol I drank or how mad I got at God. He must have forgotten to sew it on! We were also told that Jonathan had neo-natal leukemia and there was nothing they could do. It would have to resolve on its own or Jonathan would not make it. Was this supposed to be the silver lining? What was He thinking? He gave me a son and now He was going to take him. That was fine with me. I even told my wife Shirley that God worked in mysterious ways. He made an honest mistake and now He was going to fix His mistake.

Guess what happened next? You guessed it…the leukemia resolved on its own. Jonathan was a fighter. It was around this time that my 7 year old daughter Jodi informed me that it did not matter that Jonathan had Down syndrome. We would love him anyway and that was that. At 5 months we were faced with another test…Jonathan was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He underwent surgery and had to endure six months of chemotherapy. As I witnessed this little boy withstand everything that was thrown at him, I realized there was a toughness and determination inside him that would not be denied.



So here I was feeling sorry for myself blaming God and everyone else when I realized that this little boy had more fight in him than anyone I had ever met. This was a major turning point for me. I vowed I would do everything in my power to help him realize his full potential.

Over the past years, Jonathan has taught me many lessons. He has taught me that determination, hard work and a try, try again attitude can result in reaching your goals.

He has taught me unconditional love for his fellow human beings. He cares not what size a person is, what color a person his, what political or religious affiliation a person has, how rich or poor a person is, how a person dresses or what car a person drives. If a person is nice to him, that person is a friend for life.

He has taught me that it’s ok to be sad, it’s ok to be happy, it’s ok to lose, it’s ok to win, it’s ok to live and not worry about things that are out of our control.

He has taught me the simple side of life and appreciating that waking up each morning is the most important event of the day. From there it’s just another day of challenges and making memories….some good, some bad. Like he says, “It’s no big deal!”

He has taught me that family and friends are our most important commodities and every chance you get, give them a hug.

He has taught me it is not the end result that is important, it is the journey…that it is important to celebrate every successful step along the way.

His belief in such things as Santa Claus has rejuvenated the innocence I lost somewhere in my youth. He has shown me the fun in life I somehow had forgotten.

He has taught me to be a better human being. I have been sober since January 4th, 1990. That was the first day of the rest of my life. I live one day at a time. I start each day with the Serenity Prayer. Jonathan lives the Serenity Prayer.

So you see, Jonathan was sent here to teach me. He is training me to reach my full potential.

God wasn’t punishing me! He created a perfect little boy. The reason I couldn’t find that silver lining is because that cloud was lined in gold!

He did however make a mistake. He created me with 1 less chromosome. I am handicapped!