What is in a Word?

She offered to make cookies EVERYTIME we came over, and oh man, were they yummy!!! She loved listening to country music on her record player, and she knew everything there was to know about her favorite singers. She loved to knit. She tried to teach me how to do that, but I was never able to figure it out. Most of all, she was a wonderful woman who loved everybody she knew. She never held a grudge when my cousins or I picked on her. (Oh how I regret that now!) She would turn right around and offer us a cookie and she never said a single hurtful word to us. Never even gave it a second thought.

I bring up this information because of a single word that gets said a lot these days. I will only use it once in this post. That word is "retard(ed)" If you ask a teenager the meaning of that word, chances are, they will say it means someone is dumb. They call their friends or family members that to insult them or to tease them. While they are insulting other people, they are also calling someone with developmental disabilities dumb, but as you have read above, about my aunt, she was capable of doing many things on her own. What if they aren't capable of those things, you might ask. To that, I say that they still deserve respect and love just like anyone else in this world. They are human beings.

~July 9, 1950 - Aug 13, 1989~

She was someones daughter, granddaughter, sister, sister in-law, and MY aunt. I love her and I miss her dearly. My point in this is that when that word is said, it is hurtful, even if it was not directed to them. Please be courteous and speak to people in the way you would want to be spoken to. I can tell you that the "R" word is something you will never hear me say because it is insulting to one of the most wonderful people I have ever had the privilege to know - my aunt Marlyce!