Hanging by a Twig

(From Chapter 2)

For Mary, telling her story is enjoyable work. She has traveled across the country for over ten years, talking about her life and lecturing about learning disabilities. "I've been to and spoken at most of the learning disabilities conventions, from California and Rhode Island to Texas and Ohio." Mary has been interviewed on television and in the newspapers, and a number of years ago when learning disabilities was a new concept her life story was featured in Family Circle and condensed in Reader's Digest. "When I give talks, my purpose is not to teach special methods for working with the learning disabled," she says. "My purpose is to have people know that this problem [learning disabilities] does exist. I never want another child to suffer through this problem." Mary has been extremely successful in carrying her message about learning disabilities to educators and the general public across the country, using a variety of formats, including personal presentations, video presentations, a major exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry on learning disabilities, and most recently her book called A Day to Cry. Yet Mary Grigar reads at about a fifth grade level and spells at a third or fourth grade level.

Mary's professional accomplishments are all the more significant because she barely graduated from high school. "Everybody's saying go back to college. But it's just ... it's not possible. There is no part of my body that would ever allow me to sit in a classroom again," she says emphatically. "I would start crying. And the only sad part about it is that I will never get the degree, if that is the sad part. No. The sad part is that much of society will never see what I do have to offer."

Mary's life is full of inconsistencies, such as being quite intelligent but failing to get a degree. She is an excellent listener, who successfully served as a peer counselor to learning disabled adolescents, yet she would have difficulty reading a transcript of those same peer counseling sessions in which she listened so empathically. With her wit and imagination it is no wonder that she has been a dynamic effective, sought-after speaker, yet she still has difficulty writing a sentence without errors in spelling and grammar. "All those 'ly's' and 'ing's'— those are things that you throw on at the end, you know. I've memorized all the endings, and then when I write I leave a space between the words so that I can fit in an 'er' or an 'ed' or an 'ing.' When I go back I see it from another angle, and I think maybe I should add another 'er' or an 'ed' or an 'ing.'"

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