Downs With Ups

We recently had the pleasure of meeting up with some friends whom we hadn’t seen for a number of years.  They’d been impressed with how well Poppet was developing and like most of my friends, were curious to know how Down syndrome affects Poppet.  By way of illustrating how Poppet processes information and how impressionable she is, I told my friends the following story.

With my sister-in-law’s birthday approaching, Poppet and I went to the Windsor Hotel in the city, to buy her a gift voucher for high tea.  As we walked up Spring Street, we saw a man sitting on the footpath, leaning his back against a building wall.  He was clearly a homeless person, dishevelled and dirty in appearance, with what looked like a paper plate in front of him.  It seemed he’d managed to collect a few coins from city workers as they passed him by.

Poppet was intrigued with the man and slowed down to stare at him.  I gently pulled her away.  As we kept walking towards the Hotel, I explained to her that the man didn’t have anywhere to live, that he was ‘homeless’.  Poppet listened intently and I saw her face crumple with concern when I told her the reason he was asking for money was that he didn’t have any money to buy food.

When at the Hotel, Poppet made her way to some seats in the lobby, as I went to Reception to buy the present.  I could tell she was still reflecting on our conversation.  When we walked out of the hotel towards the car afterwards, she was unusually quiet.

“That man without a house,” she said.  “Can we buy him a one?”

“Well, houses are very expensive and we don’t have enough money to buy him one.”

Without wanting her to worry, I added, “There are some places though, where he could go for the night.  They’re called ‘shelters’ and they sometimes look after people like him.”

“He won’t have any dinner, will he?”  Poppet asked.

“Well, not unless he can collect a lot of coins or goes to a shelter.”

She was clearly concerned.

“Would you like to give him some money?”

Poppet looked down the street towards the man and I followed her gaze, interested to see if he was still there.  Seeing his slumped figure, she looked back to me and nodded.

I took my purse out from my bag and unzipped the coin section.

“Here you go.  Take the coins out Poppet.”

She reached down and took out all the coins.  There was $3.20 in her hand.

“You can put them on his plate,” I suggested.

We walked on and slowed down to stop in front of the man.  Poppet stood there not saying anything, just looking at the man.  His eyes were cast down towards the ground.  She bent over, to reach down to the plate and put the coins on it.  At that point, the man, who must have seen the small hands, lifted his head up to look at her.

“There you are, mate,” she said and stood up.

The man looked completely surprised, if not bewildered.  I guess it’s not often he’s given money from a child, let alone a child with Down syndrome.

As we turned to walk away, I heard him mutter, “Thanks, love.”

Yesterday, we were talking about going into the city again, some two months after seeing the man on the street.

“Will we be seeing the man without a house?” asked Poppet.

I was taken aback.  Her encounter with the homeless man clearly had a profound impact on her.  We spoke once again about where he would sleep and what he would eat.  I was intrigued by the way in which my daughter processed her experience, yet was happy for her to learn that she is lucky and that there are some people who aren’t as fortunate as she is.