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Forty years ago my mother and father thought that it would be in the best interest of my sister and me
to put my brother in a home since he needed 24 hour supervision on the advice of their pediatrician.
Terry was five at the time. My brother can not walk by himself; he can not talk except to say a few
words and has the mentality of a three year old child, but still knows exactly what he wants when you
are in a store or going to eat.
Being that my brother was the oldest and only boy it was harder I would have to say on my father to
accept the future, Terry not always around and no grandchildren to carry on the Robinson name. The
hardest part for my mother was that she was giving up her son. I can only imagine the heartache it
must have caused way back when.
I remember when I was young the trips from Collingwood every weekend to see Terry at H.R.C. and
never once do I remember feeling that this wasn’t a normal thing to be doing. This was of course my
brother, why wouldn’t I want to see him.
My mother still tries every month to see my brother and I try when I can to go with her. She brings
him home at Christmas and sometimes in the summer for a couple of days, any longer than that he
gets out of his routine.
Now it is 40 years later and the home that has become his life is trying to be ripped from underneath
him. My father passed a couple of years ago leaving all the responsibility of my brother to my mother,
with my sister and me trying to help in any way. My mother is now in her 70’s and is a very passive
person and doesn’t like to bother her friends or family with her burden. She also doesn’t know all the
ins and outs of H.R.C. as my father was the one that looked after all of that stuff about my brother.
My mother has since found letters dating back to the early 1970’s that my father had been righting H.
R.C. I on the other hand am like my father and have started the ball rolling a little in Collingwood with
petitions and trying to see the mayor with my letter of resolution. My father I’m sure has been rolling
around in his grave since all of this nonsense has started.
There have been a lot of tears shed around our houses thinking about Terry’s future. How dare the
government be doing this to our families? Everyone keep up the fight. I know I will, since my brother
can’t speak for himself.
Keep up the faith.