The Poisonwood Bible is set in 1959 and is about a Southern Baptist preacher that goes on a mission to the Congo with his wife and four girls, one of which, Adah Price, is disabled and non-verbal. The doctors didn't give her the greatest prognosis, basically saying she will always have issues and problems in her life.
So far the author pulls a GRR Martin (my favorite pervy author) with each chapter in the first person narrative. While reading the following passage of Miss Adah I naturally thought of my girl and although I could go on afterwards how often we are quick to judge or mistakenly assume children like my daughter will not ever be able to have a higher quality of life, I wont.
"I am prone to let the doctors' prophecy rest and keep my thoughts to myself. Silence has many advantages. When you do not speak, other people presume you to be deaf or feeble-minded and promptly make a show of their own limitations. Only occasionally do I find I have to break my peace: shout or be lost in the shuffle...
It is true I do not speak as well as I can think. But that is true of most people, as nearly as I can tell."
