Prince John - The Lost Prince

 This story came to me through an excellently written historical fiction novel: The Royal Nanny by Karen Harper. My dear grandma (called "Mite") lent it to me. Since I was about in middle school, she and I have exchanged hundreds of books. We have similar reading preferences and we know that, if one of us recommends a book for the other, she is never wrong.

The Royal Nanny tells the story of Charlotte "Lala" Bill, a young nanny who cares for the British royal family beginning in 1897. The children she so loves are the great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria. The youngest, John, is the one who needs her the most. The book is beautiful and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction. (For the record, I have never read a Karen Harper novel that I didn't like. She sadly passed away from cancer in April 2020.)

John, 1913

Mary Ingalls - Seeing with Words

Mary, 1889

Outside of my personal life, my first experience with disability was in books. The most defining series of my childhood was the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My mother had her own precious copies from 1971 while mine were published in 1994.

Though I, like so many little girls, identified with the spunky and bold Laura, many of my traits really matched that of her older sister, Mary. Mary was quiet, obedient, and responsible. She was her mother's right-hand while managing frequent moves and adventurous little sisters. Her life, and that of her family's, changed drastically when she became ill at fourteen years old. From this point onward, the Little House series takes a turn: Laura's childhood abruptly ends and the family's moves become more focused on finding stability and security for their now-disabled oldest daughter. 

 

Laura Ingalls Wilder is a topic about which I could speak for hours. I have many books both by and about her. I have visited the Little House sites in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Missouri. As a young teenager, I cried in reverence at Rocky Ridge Farm, where the real Wilder wrote the series that so influenced my life. And, while I technically appreciate the revived interest that the Little House on the Prairie TV series (1974-1983) sparked, I will rant about the endless historical inaccuracies. I've never actually made it through a full episode, though I have tried.

Melissa Sue Anderson as Mary Ingalls, 1974 publicity photo

This post is about Wilder's older sister, Mary Ingalls - the real one, not the one who slowly went blind, married the also-blind Adam Kendall, started a blind school, had a miscarriage, got depressed, had another baby who died in a fire at said blind school, got depressed again, then moved to New York with her husband, who had miraculously recovered his sight and become a lawyer. Man, that TV series was wild. 

Anne de Gaulle - A Father's Love

This first story is the one that motivated me to create this blog. I have a mental list of "historical figures you didn't know had disabilities/had children with disabilities" that has accumulated over the years. It gets added to with modern celebrities that, no matter how their popularity ebbs and flows, will always be impacted by the disability in their own life or their family's. I learned about this young woman on Reddit just last night and, since then, my research wheels have been whirring.

Anne and her father on a beach in Brittany, 1933

Author's Note

 My life is a series of stories that I am able to share independently. My sister, who has Angelman Syndrome, is severely cognitively disabled and nonverbal. She cannot tell her own story. If not for her loved ones, she, like so many others with disabilities, would disappear from history. 

I have always had a love of history. It helps me make sense of the world. My analytical brain looks for the patterns of the past in the (vain) hopes of figuring out what the future may hold. Yet the history we learn overlooks so many - we do not learn the stories of those who were not able to share them. Disability has shaped my life irrevocably. What about all of the other lives who were influenced by disability? Where are their stories?

I am writing this blog for my own personal enjoyment. I show my love by sharing knowledge and stories with others. As often as I am able, I will share interesting stories of disability throughout history in hopes that someone may share them with others.

Most sincerely yours,

Clem

My (much beloved) big sister and me

Image Description for Accessibility: Clem and her older sister, both young white women with brown ponytails, are cuddled on the couch. Both are wearing Green Bay Packers t-shirts and smiling broadly.