Awesome moment there. She does seem very high functioning, which is great. It’s an unfortunate disability, but she is a great inspiration.
I went to high school with a couple of kids with Downs. Heather was the sweetest person you could ever meet, I enjoyed her company and she lit up when she saw me, we went to the same Church, which helped that bond I’m sure. Derrick, had amazing physical ability, unfortunately he really struggled in the social aspect of things. He was quite a sweet kid too, but he had a temper that could be down right scary. Looking back, I don’t really know how it came about that I became their friend, but it was cool. I used to get called out of class because I could calm him down and his aide knew it, I didn’t really do anything, I just talked to him like he was “normal” and he accepted me as a friend and would calm down even mid-rage. It was 3 full grown adults to restrain him, he was so powerful. I’ll never forget watching him drag people down a hallway trying to get to another really big, extremely low functioning asshole that had insulted Heather. I wish they had let him go in honesty.. anyway, enough rambling. I miss them.