The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 82

si II I 1 I I -Tj LT'- Vu i i i ii 1 Mercedes doesn't ask any more for a magician to give-her arms. She's busy all the time like other little girls hands. Classmates became curious and one boy asked, "Why is it that sometimes her arms are long and sometimes they're short?" "Because," Mrs. Leblanc replied with the frankness she had been told to use at all times; "she was born without 'arms. And for certain work, she has to wear her prosthesis." When the children grow into adulthood and seek work, Dr.

Mongeau thinks it may be necessary to hold counselling sessions with employers.1. "We shall be able' to tell them, we hope, that our young people are capable of filling a wide range of positions," he says. -In the meantime, a team of Univer- sity Of Montreal psychology re-" searchers under Gouin- Decade is probing deep into the lives of two dozen of the children. So far, the researchers' have conducted three biennial evaluations and have learned a lot about what goes on in the minds of their little patients. But the inner life of.

the thalidomide child is still a vast unexplored area. And the results of psychological tests are really only valid for the. time being. What lies ahead is really any- body's guess, For Dr. Mongeau, a lot depends on acceptance and love.

And it is because the prescription has been so -fully filled by the Benegbis that Mer- cedes has made the strides she has in her sixearsr 0 Th5v call her Mercedes la merveill-eus'e (The "marvellous Mercedes) at the institute and her parents have skept the title for her at home. "She has filled our home with joy," says Mrs. Benegbi, "She is so full of love and affection. I once thought it would have been better if she had died. Now I can't imagine what life would be without her." Mercedes is so loving and so outgoing that a stranger visiting her for the.

ifirst time does not" remain a stranger for long. He is even after a few minutes with her, to forget "that she is physically not like other children. The lips curl up into a mischievious grin as she takes you about her home showing you the pictures she 'has painted. Particularly when you stop in front of the painjting of the church with nil thi crmt nh it I vaa 'T "Why does the church have spots?" you ask. Because it nas smallpox, she quips.

tc: JfT There is a quick lip-biting smile as you inspect a brightly-colored finger -painting of abstract design. "Those are roads," she says and, as you look closer, you think you can see the outline of highways! Continued on next page.