Fallen From Grace

I Just Wanted To Have Fun

Let me explain a major part of my DNA that has affected my whole life. I was born with Mosaic Down Syndrome. It wasn't genetic, it was simply because extra chromosomes got attached to fertilising the egg inside my Mother and in 1985, I came shooting along in July. My Mom was expecting me a day earlier that's what she was told by nurses to be expecting to see me on the 9th. It was a very hot day, (as she often explained) one of those incredible hot summers that only existed in the 80's and 90's on the 10th of July and after being chased by a bee Mom was sure it was because of that it brought her contractions along. Her original choices of names for me were Julie Ann and Elizabeth Grace. As Mom was huffing moaning and withering around on all fours in the back seats as she was raced to the hospital all Dad could think of to do was to ask...

"Want a cigarette?"

Mom had plenty of ideas to do to him as soon as she heard this. Obviously the details of that day are just between Mom and Dad but I like to skip to the best when I was born and cradled in my Mother's arms she knew what to call me when asked by the Nurse.

"This is Kimberly Louise," she said.

Dad, was flabbergasted that this wasn't a choice they'd discussed. You could say it happened spontaneously.

Upon my arrival of course I had tests done before I left the hospital to make sure I was happy and healthy and the doctor had to share some news that upset my Mother.

"Kimberly's been born with a rare condition," he explained. "I've taken some of her cells to examine and she has some affected by Mosaic Down Syndrome."

Mom was shocked. She looked at my Dad Edward, Carol, my Mom felt like she had failed somehow to produce a healthy baby and it was somehow her fault.

"What does that mean?" Edward asked.

"Oh it's nothing to worry about. Most people walk around with this their entire life unaware they even have it and it doesn't even bother them in the slightest. They'd only be aware until they were in hospital for something and their cells got tested but we chose to run this test on Kimberly. It's not going to bother her..."

Mom and Dad weren't completely convinced.

"I can show you if you like."

He took them to a little monitor and started picking cells at random as Mom and Dad watched and a fair amount were unaffected but then they found some that had the Mosaic Down Syndrome on. Later on when Mom and Dad brought me around to my Nan and Grandad's even though they had a great thirty two seconds to ooh and ahh over me then they were told of my condition. When everyone was getting ready to leave for the evening, I was in a little cott alone with my Nan in the middle of Nan's living room and she walked on over to me.

"Don't you get listening to them," she said.

As she leaned over the cott she felt I was taking her all in through my blue eyes.

"They don't know what they are talking about because you'll prove them wrong. We'll prove them all wrong."

When I was born I was so tiny that the regular choices of babies clothes didn't fit me, in fact, I was so small what really fitted me were children's doll clothes and as my Mother has said in countless nostalgic stories my head fitted into the palm of her hand. My Nan had to knit smaller little cardigans and the red boots off Paddington Bear wasn't long before they became my little boots to wear.

I was exposed to my parents music tastes travelling along in their cars. For example when I travelled with my Mom it was always the Beetles or a selection of the greatest hits from the 1960's and 70's so artists like Shirley Bassey, Lulu, Shirley Ellis, The Chordettes and those kinds of artists mixed on a tape, with my Dad it was always one singer in the tape player and that was Diana Ross. So I have a mixed variety of songs that I like. There's no set artist or song that's my favourite but growing up for me in the 1980's it was all about girl power from the Spice Girls and my favourite Spice Girl was Emma.