| Show i - ' ( 4 - 0 -- ''‘tatik7' If 026 'a"no-"v4-:- - - : ''' : ''' 'tgr i'' ) - '!: T - ' s'''' 'i V' N' V - tzirr c: 10 ' 10 '7' ' i kt AAt 0 'lc ": o '' - " 1:44: ' ' — ''"- 11 " t ' "41 "4:':60-Ar- Ns - 1: '''IAlailmiS 1 - - -- - ----- -- :' ': 1 Net rA ''' w - ) - ' ' 1 r '9160 aTH API -- - -- Ibkti ' : '''''' 13nwommsnowon" 1 511111611g1"91 - ::: - ' - - st t - T n tab) 1 -- E VERY YEAR I AM inspired and amazed to meet children who shoulder the burdens of a serious illness and who maintain a cheerful outlook Take the case of the wonderful youngster with whom 1 appear on the cover of this issue of PARADE Ashley Antolak the Muscular Dystrophy Association's 1989 national poster child dark-eye- d beauThis blond-haire- d from Athens ty is a feisty Tenn She stole my heart away the moment 1 met her just as 1 know she's going to steal many more hearts when 1 present her to the millions of viewers watching our Telethon beginning this evening Ashley's dad Bob is an engineer at a big Tennessee Valley Authority B 11 SEPTEMBER 3 1989 r TA71------- 0I t have had to work hard on physical therapy at the local Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic to develop the mobility she has now -- c1 You wouldn't know that it has been N 11 is tough not by talking to this lively and r apitushprant little girl who speaks with a Tennessee drawl Ashley's laughter is Donna mom cares Her plant power for Ashley and her infectious It's wonderful seeing her brother as a nurse Anthony and works part-tim- e eyes light up when she talks about her In many ways the Antolaks are an ordifavorite things—her stuffed animals nary family—except that Ashley has spiDisney movies country music riding nal tnuscular atrophy a nerve-muscdisher bicycle swimming and her cat Blackie order that makes her life and her famiHer cheerfulness and spiritedness are ly's far from ordinary At first it seemed like the disease was extraordinary to me They fill me with renewed hope and help give me the going to prevent Ashley from ever being able to walk But she did learn how soon strength to carry on in the fight to defeat after her second birthday Sure she walks diseases like hers for Ashley and for all the kids she'll be representing when a little more slowly and deliberately than other little girls but it's no less of a she takes her place on our Telethon miracle for that Ashley and her parents —Jerry Lewis stage II PARADE MAGAZINE i 0 - MDA poster child Ashley Antolak enters first grade this month At left with her parents Donna and Bob AntotaL ? SHE'LL STEAL YOUR HEART t'' PAGE 5 SC & -- Tr n le want to help the MDA find II -o- - and I said "No!" Well that's not true I did question Him and long and hard And the more He didn't answer the more 1 I asked again "Why us?" I guess what I'm getting at is that we can feel for others with genuine concern and care and totally empathize with those who have had a rough break But it's truly amazinghow much more you care and empathize when it hits home Your home At two months of pregnancy Sam and I went to the doctor for a sonogram so that we could see the baby's heartbeat I walked toward the doctor's office with legs that haven't been that limp since the night I performed fsw Her Majesty the Queen of England I said hello to everybody who passed I've never been so cordial and friendly In we go They tell me to sit on a chair out of the way and then they gently place Sam on the table and begin the sonogram and there is the baby's heart beating (there really wasn't that much to see at just two months of pregnancy but it was there and it was ours) I never knew how much salt I had in — my tears till I tasted We it in the comer of my mouth The tears of joy had to be the larg- est I can remember! Sam was taken off the table and we went down the hall I 1 looking like Judy Garland The Lion The Tin Man and The Scarecrow! We were on the yellow brick road for one whole week until we went back to the doctor because he suspected a problem —and so another sonogram This time the heartbeat was gone and so was our baby Now I know how parents feel with a Duchenne child who the cure to e imitate the suffering of both " my kids" and their doesn't make it Now I know what I couldn't have ever known in 40 years about the loss of a child Is there any difference? Only one small one: Those parents got to meet and suffer with theirs and we didn't do either except for the pain we felt And pain and suffering are two different things That's why on Labor Day we want to find the cure to eliminate the suffering of both "my kids" and their parents And with the dollars we raise on Labor Day we have a hell of a chance at it (See the accompanying update on the progress we've made in the last two years—thanks largely to your dollars!) parents continued 1 |
