RAISING US

OUR GUYS is the story of five New England mothers who find each other in the early 1970s when they bring their babies with Down syndrome and autism home from the hospital to a landscape that has little to offer in terms of medical, social or educational support. 

 

The founding members of The South Shore Mothers Group share stories from the past and invite us into their lives in the present. The images of their sons as they grow up juxtaposes with the real-time journey of their lives now as grown men.  

 

The mothers as a group’s fifty-year friendship is the engine that drives our narrative. They are storytellers with wit, humor and their stories range from the comical to heart-wrenching. 

 

We move between the past and present as we introduce the women, follow them back into the previous decades and return to the present.  We relive the milestones that define them both as parents and as disabilities advocates, from establishing their first special needs elementary classroom to navigating violent behavior in the young men with autism during puberty. 

 

The decades are defined by the growth of their sons, heartbreaking parenting choices, the lacking empathy in others, the deaths of close friends – they meet now to reminisce where the emotional memories are strong - the school building where that first special needs classroom was established, the cemetery where their friend is buried. The triumphs and losses have the perspective of passing years now. Like the time they piled into school buses, arriving at the Massachusetts State House to protest disabled housing funding cuts. We stand with them on the steps and relive that day, their stories told as archive news coverage plays. 

 

The mothers now face end of life decisions, their own declining health and the setbacks of the Covid era. We do not see definitive solutions, but we do see the value in sharing their brand of hope, perseverance and resourcefulness. We hear their stories reflected in the next generation of parents, from different areas of the country, navigating caregiving just like these women. The question that drives our narrative is: will they ever have peace? Now in their seventies and eighties, the mothers group seek plans for their children’s care once they are gone. We know they will not give up until that one crucial question is answered.