DETERMINATION

As I sat behind the signup table in the back of the church in the vestibule, I was prepared to do my duty for God and my fellow man. I was selling raffle tickets and tickets to the Italian dance, the job was “simple” as they told me, and I quote:

“Iftheypayyoufortherraffleticketsincashputthemoneyinthisenvelope
butiftheypayyouwithacheckputitinthisenvelopewiththechecksandmoney
forthedanceticketsIliketokeepthechecksallinoneenvelopetheraffle
booksaresixchancesforfivedollarsortwelvechancesfortendollarsand
theygetafreebooksothatiseighteenchancesfortendollars.”

This was all said while a father was trying to calm down a screaming brat, the choir was being piped into the vestibule overhead, and a lady was asking ME, where she could change her baby for a baptism and what time it was.

After selling a few tickets and raffle books, I got the hang of it. The people were coming fast and furious, shoving money in my face while I was trying to do someone else’s raffle book or dance ticket.

Suddenly, a young lady and four people who suffered from Down’s syndrome entered the building. They disappeared into the church, and I went on selling tickets.

About ten minutes into the service, one of the people, a young woman who had Down’s syndrome came out from the church, and over to my table. Looking intently at the prizes on the table, she then read the signs about the raffle. Taking out one of the raffle books, she proceeded to fill out the slips, and then decided to deposit the whole book, stubs and all, into one of the prize packaging we were offering for the raffle. We just watched, and when she was done, thanked us and went back into the church.

Everyone sat stunned, as a silence seemed to punctuate the whole affair.

As my partner sitting next to me said: “What can you do?”

Indeed.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/genetic/down_syndrome.html