When I was a teenager, my sister Nanette gave me a book I can't get out of my head. What has stuck with me most from
Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn was the advice her father gave her in a letter he sent her for her 21st birthday, "try to do one thing well—utilizing the experience of all preceding life and your own wit."
Since then, I've wondered, just what is my "one thing" and how will I know that's the thing to try to do well? I've done a lot of things, but I still ask myself that question.
My husband recently told me that he thought my real talent was watercolor, not writing. So, I ask...for those of you who have read my blog and seen my art. Which is it?
If you've had similar questions and found the answer, I'd love to hear how you figured things out.
In the meantime, here is something I've written that I'm proud of:
Power beyond
words
By
Pamela Baumeister
Music
was Rachel de Azevedo Coleman’s whole life. Growing up in Utah as number five
in a musical family of nine, Rachel was surrounded by it. Her father, Lex de
Azevedo, was the music director for acts such as the Jackson Five special, “The
Sonny & Cher Show” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” He gained fame locally,
writing the music for “Saturday’s Warrior.” Rachel, never in the spotlight
until after high school, sang and wrote music for her band while expecting her
first child, Leah.
“I
used to joke that wouldn’t it just be my luck to have a kid that was tone
deaf,” Rachel says of her pregnancy. Little did she know that her baby would
never hear her mother speak, let alone sing and play the guitar.
Shortly
before Rachel and her husband, Aaron, moved to Los Angeles to be close to her
sister, Emilie de Azevedo Brown, the couple started noticing something strange
about Leah. Women at the grocery store would invariably stop and say “hi” to
the adorable tot. At 14 months, Leah would lift her eyebrows, smile and open
her mouth. But, no air or sound would come out.
Leah
was deaf.
Rachel and Aaron mourned, but they weren’t
defeated.
“There
was nothing wrong for her. She wasn’t ‘missing out’ — we realized that we
needed to learn something new. Maybe we needed to learn to be like her,” Rachel
relates.
Signs
of progress
The couple learned sign language
quickly. So did Leah, who also learned to read at age 2. However, Rachel
noticed there were times when Leah was left out.
When Leah was 4 years old and in soccer,
Rachel noticed, “The hearing kids in our community were going a different way.”
A boy on Leah’s team didn’t want Leah as his partner. She couldn’t “talk or
understand” him. Rachel knew things wouldn’t improve.
Taking action, she went to the boy’s preschool
and volunteered at story time. She read books and taught the children a few
simple signs. At the next soccer practice, the boy signed ‘friend,’ ‘play,’
‘ball.’ A few signs bridged the gap and, Rachel says, “changed the course of my
deaf daughter’s life.”
Through Emilie’s encouragement, the
sisters started Two Little Hands Productions, making videos of songs and signs.
This was the beginning of “Signing Time,” a show that teaches sign language
through music to kids and parents all over the world. The sisters started the
venture with next to nothing.
“I was on WIC — we had Social Security —
we were scraping by. We couldn’t even
pay our rent. I had no idea that we’d be on PBS … I thought if I make these
videos, that will change Leah’s world. When Emilie and I did our first video,
we didn’t have a loan and now we have a successful, nationally recognized
business,” Rachel marvels.
Miraculous
sign
Rachel and Aaron decided to have
another child. They soon found out that the fetus had water on the brain caused
by spina bifida.
“We thought ‘Why us? We don’t even know
anything about spina bifida!’” Rachel stopped herself when she realized she
felt the same way when they learned Leah was deaf. “Maybe it is the same and
there’s nothing wrong — it’s just different than we expected.”
Rachel
and her unborn daughter underwent in-utero surgery to repair baby Lucy’s spine.
Nine months after a successful birth, Lucy was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“They
told us that she was retarded. She would lie on her back and stare — she
couldn’t use her body in any way,” remembers Rachel.
Rachel
wrote a song when Lucy was two called “Show Me A Sign.” It was her prayer for
Lucy to prove the doctors wrong. Shortly after that song was written, Lucy
signed “more.”
“I
was stunned. After another nine months, she learned to speak. And now she
speaks and signs and happens to be in a wheelchair. She is an inspiration to
other kids. She gets 100 percent on her spelling tests and is in every ‘Signing
Time’ show.”
One language
Rachel’s
drive to make a difference in the lives of her children is now changing lives
worldwide.
Rachel,
Aaron, Leah and Curry Jones, the founder of non-profit Signs of Hope
International, traveled to Ghana, Africa, to teach sign language to a school
for deaf children. Rachel and Curry went again for a national conference.
“There’s
a social stigma for deaf children, even among the educators. Having Rachel
there was an ‘a-ha’ moment for them. They realized — after she got up, spoke
and sang — that maybe the deaf can learn,” says Curry. ‘Signing Time’
videos are now used in the deaf school. Curry says of the people Rachel touched
by sharing herself and her vision, “The children and teachers think, ‘If this
American movie star can sign, so can we.’” She has created a paradigm shift for
that area of Africa and it’s spreading.
Curry
goes to Africa four or five times a year with Signs of Hope International.
“They
talk about Rachel every time. She made quite an impression.”
“I refuse to
let my circumstances have me.”
Rachel’s
“honesty and candor and her willingness to share this personal experience with
people has been not only a tremendous coping tool (for her), but also a tremendous
gift (for others),” shares Emilie.
“As
women and mothers, we are in a great position to make a difference. We can
easily use our circumstances as an excuse to not do what we’ve got the
potential to do. I’m sure I have a get-out-of-jail-free card for being
depressed and saying ‘my life is really hard.’ I just have circumstances that I
don’t expect — but who doesn’t?” muses Rachel.
Emilie says, “She is just like you and me — a
woman trying to hold it all together. All the while, she is absolutely committed
to changing the world.”
Here is something I've painted that I'm proud of:
I have several other paintings and drawings posted to this blog, if you feel that you need more to go on for a judgment. Where do
you think my talent lies? I won't be offended with your judgment, I just need more than my husband's opinion to consider. I probably won't stop doing either one, but I'll likely focus my efforts on one.
Thanks for your help!
