Up-Lifting Story
It was about three years ago as Charlie was turning eight that I stopped carrying him. He was always big for his age and I developed a bit of a muscle in my left arm from holding him, balanced on my hip—-he weighs as much or more than me now and the babe-in-arms days are indeed over. Then I read about 33-year-old Melanie Roach in today’s New York Times: She has three young children, one of whom, Drew, is 5 years old and autistic; owns a gymnastics facility; is married to a state legislator; and is training for the Olympic trials in weightlifting. At 5 feet 1 inch tall and weighing 117 pounds, she can lift 238 pounds over her head. She’s been through a plethora of injuries to her elbow and back:
The problems she encountered in competition were nothing compared with the challenge she confronted with Drew after his autism was diagnosed in 2005. Roach said she was preoccupied with everything he would never be able to do — school dances, church missions, college classes. He did not have bad days; he had bad weeks, bad months, filled with relentless tantrums.
“It was literally in a week my life changed,” Roach said. “I went into depression. I went through a mourning process. Almost like I lost a child.”
She said she would kneel at his bedside every night, praying he would get better.
In December 2005, Roach, a Mormon, went to see her bishop. “This is not what I signed up for,” she said.
“This is exactly what you signed up for,” he replied. That message not only changed her outlook about Drew, it changed her outlook about weight lifting.
“She learned that no matter how much money and time she put into it, she couldn’t change the outcome,” said her husband, Dan. “That has really helped with lifting. In the end, it’s the same concept.”
Roach sounds like she’s already winning big—-and talk about working mothers.
(Still, I think I’ll still be asking Charlie to help me carry in the groceries.)
Tags: asd, asperger, athletes, autism, gymnastic, mormon, mother, olympics, pdd-nos, Sports, washington, weight lifting
1 opinion for Up-Lifting Story
Val
May 6, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Nice story
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