WHEN I WAS A YOUNG MAN, I WORKED AT A HALFWAY house with people who were then unkindly termed “mentally retarded adults.” Today, we say “mentally challenged,” or people with “intellectual disabilities.” I was a case aide, charged with seeing that the fifteen or so people on my list took any nighttime medications, brushed their teeth, showered twice a week, changed into pajamas, went to bed, and stayed there.

I took the job because it was a few blocks from where I lived and had convenient hours that left me time to study, read, write, and watch late-night television. I didn’t have any ambition to become a caregiver. The more I did that tiring, vital, and demanding job, the more I was inspired to do something easier. I became a reporter.

But I learned so much from the people who lived in that home. They were gifted, lively, funny, and interesting. I was shaken at first to meet adults who, in many ways, seemed to talk and act a little like children. But the more I got to know the residents, the less I saw them as people with mental challenges or disabilities, but real people who laughed, worried, loved, and made real lives in the world. They were direct, kind, and loving. I admired them.

I think of this story as a long-delayed thank-you to those people who became my friends and teachers. I have worked some of their names and personalities into this story, but it is a work of fiction.

While Sunnyside Plaza is inspired by the home in which I worked, today there are many different kinds of facilities for people with developmental disabilities, each with different policies and routines. I am especially impressed by the L’Arche communities, founded by the Catholic activist Jean Vanier, who says their goal is “listening to people with their pain, their joy, their hope, their history, listening to their heartbeats.”

Our friends Don Kelly and Kathy Doan, who run a L’Arche house in Washington, DC, have read this story and offered advice, based on their experience. But Sunnyside Plaza is not a L’Arche community. Dr. Neil Cherian of Cleveland Clinic has advised me about medications and consequences, but the play of events in Sunnyside Plaza should not be taken as some kind of prescription. Different states have different rules and policies about drug treatments in communities for people with developmental disabilities, and those regimens described in Sunnyside Plaza should not be taken as standard across the country. Martin Oberman, attorney at law and former Cook County prosecutor and Chicago alderman, has read this story and advised on legal aspects.

I have also had expert advice on the interests of young readers from Elise and Paulina Simon, and Adelaide Machado-Ulm.

But all mistakes are mine, and mine alone.

SSS