Sweethearts with Down syndrome to wed 30 years after meeting

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

by Eun Kyung Kim from Today News:
Austin Underwood says he has loved his fiancée, Jessica Smith, since they were 4 years old, when their mothers met at a support group for children with Down syndrome.
Thirty years later, the Dallas couple will finally tie the knot.
“I want to marry her because I love her. She's my very own best friend,” Austin told NBC’s Maria Shriver.
The couple have grown from being playmates to prom dates and, next month, husband and wife.
“All I see is a big sun, or a god,” Jessica said of her sweetheart. “A sun — and the moon!”
Their story reflects not only their love, but the determination by their mothers to give their children normal lives.
“'Two people with Down syndrome, they're really getting married?' You know, there’s a little bit of stigma still there,” said Austin’s mother, Jan Underwood. “And this is kind of another chip away of removing that stigma.”

couple with Down syndrome land jobs, find love

by Sonya Padgett from The San Francisco Chronicle:

The way Michelle Desrochers looks at her boyfriend and then places her hand in his, you can tell she adores him.

He understands her, Desrochers, 24, says of Carlos Sierra. He treats her with respect and kindness, opens doors for her and even finishes her sentences.

They are wildly in love. They plan to marry. First, though, they must both complete couples counseling and life skills training, which will teach them how to be in a relationship and how to live independently.

Sierra, 29, and Desrochers have Down syndrome, a genetic disorder caused by the presence of an extra chromosome.

Those born with the syndrome experience mild to moderate intellectual disabilities and delayed physical development. Many suffer from heart problems and other health conditions that can shorten their life expectancy. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 6,000 babies in the U.S. are born every year with the condition.

March 21 was World Down Syndrome Day, observed to help raise awareness of people with Down syndrome and the challenges they face, including a society that may not realize they are people who have hopes, dreams and desires.

If there is one thing Desrochers' mother, Barbara, would want people to know, it's that those with Down syndrome are capable of many things. They can live full, happy lives and even have successful relationships.

Her daughter and Sierra are good examples of that.

Couple With Down Syndrome Says They Were Mistreated At Movie Theater

by Dianna Rocco from CBS Philly 3:
“It was going to be a special day; it was Anna’s birthday,” said Stefan Slowinski.

The 18-year-old had saved up his money to take his girlfriend, AnnaRose, to the movies for her 17th birthday, but it wasn’t the special day he had planned after the two accidentally sat in the wrong seats, and a manager asked them to move.

“I thought he was unfriendly and treated us the wrong way. He found two seats in the back of the theater. They were not together,” AnnaRose Rubright explained.

Anna and Stefan have Down syndrome, and the AMC theater in Marlton has a new seating policy that includes assigning a seat to each person with a ticket. While Anna and Stefan were in the right seat numbers, they were sitting in row D instead of C.

The teens’ parents say that instead of moving them to the proper seats, the general manager moved them to the back of the theater, on opposite sides of the aisle.

“They wanted to hold hands together like any other 18-year-old and 17-year-old couple does at the movie theater,” said Anna’s mom Lin Rubright.

When Anna got home that night, she was upset and told her parents what happened. They went to the theater to confront the general manager, who they say was unapologetic.

When Bill met Shelley: No disability could keep them apart

By Ellen McCarthy from the Washington Post:
"If you're that in love, age doesn't mean a thing. Even though my mind was young and my heart was young -- somewhere inside my head I was mentally old enough."
–Bill Ott
“You know that scene in 'Dirty Dancing' where Baby meets Johnny for the first time? It was kind of like that."
–Shelley Belgard
***
BILL OTT WILL always remember the moment he met Shelley Belgard. It was in spring 1988. He was 12 and sometimes shy. Into music, sports and, suddenly, girls.
Shelley was three years older, chatty and outgoing. They'd both shown up at a Montgomery County social club looking for friends, fun and the kind of acceptance that seems so elusive during teen life.
Shelley smiled. Bill introduced himself. And that was it. "I didn't know what love was," he says. "Until I met her."
He was sure it was the real thing, but nobody ever believes that coming from a 12-year-old.
Certainly not one with Down syndrome.
But Bill knew. "If you're that in love, age doesn’t mean a thing," he says. "Even though my mind was young and my heart was young -- somewhere inside my head I was mentally old enough."
And the feeling was mutual. "You know that scene in 'Dirty Dancing' where Baby meets Johnny for the first time? It was kind of like that," remembers Shelley, a petite brunette who was also born with a mental disability. "You're looking at this awesome-looking guy, and you really don't want to blow it. You kind of want to play it safe and not play it safe at the same moment."
He lived in Silver Spring and she was in Potomac, so they exchanged phone numbers. Their parents would drive them to movies and one another's houses. They frequently met at the social club. Throughout high school, they stayed close.

Bill took Shelley to both his junior and senior proms. Each time he rented a tux, and she picked out a fancy new dress. They wrapped their arms around each other to pose for photos and danced all night long. Bill, who grew up going to Catholic Mass every Sunday, told Shelley's mother he would convert to Judaism if that's what it took to be with her.
But after high school, it became more difficult to remain in each other's lives. They moved into assisted-living programs in different parts of the county. There weren't as many social activities to bring them together and, eventually, they lost contact.
But Bill never forgot. He had known true love -- her name was Shelley.

Homecoming couple continue to inspire

Krissy Altersohn, 19, and Tom Broviak, 17, were elected homecoming queen and king at Geneva High School in the fall. (Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune / December 27, 2012)

By Vikki Ortiz Healy, Chicago Tribune reporter:
There were few dry eyes in the gymnasium when best friends Thomas Broviak and Krissy Altersohn, two students with Down syndrome, were elected homecoming king and queen at Geneva High School in the fall.
In the weeks that followed, Broviak insisted on wearing his dance shoes, even during gym class. Altersohn's mom said she saw a noticeable boost in her daughter's confidence and even found her applying makeup in the mirror before school.
"She said, 'I'm the queen. I've got to wear makeup now,'" Kathy Altersohn said.
But as the year comes to a close, the true impact of the teens' honor is still playing out in the suburban community of 22,000, where shop owners proudly tell visitors that theirs is the community that prompted thousands of "likes" on Facebook when the homecoming story went viral. The Broviak and Altersohn families continue to receive congratulations from across the country. And at the high school, what had been little-known programs designed to pair average students with their special-needs peers have doubled, even tripled in membership because students have been inspired by Altersohn and Broviak, officials said.
"Too often, our high school students get a bad rap," Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns said. "But I believe wholeheartedly that we continue to learn a great deal from the youngest people in our community — how to treat each other and what matters most."

2 students with Down syndrome to be featured at art exhibition

by David Berman from the Chillicothe Gazzette:
Alan Blue and Kaitlyn Brown are like any other teenage couple -- they bicker, they flirt and they make sure everyone knows they're dating. Well, Alan does.

What sets the Unioto students apart from other teenage couples, if only slightly, is the fact they both have Down syndrome.

It's not anything you'll hear them talk about -- Kaitlyn would rather discuss how much she loves to swim, dance and play soccer, and Alan would prefer to focus on his role as an assistant coach for the Sherman football team -- but it's the reason they're featured in a photo exhibition set to open Thursday at the Dublin Arts Council.

The arts council, working in conjunction with the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio, paired four photographers with 13 members of the Down syndrome community for "Shifting Perspectives: In the Community."

The exhibition is described by the Dublin Arts Council as "a celebration of acceptance, capturing the joy and wonder of what it is like to be human and living with Down syndrome." It's being curated by Richard Bailey, a British photographer who helped create the first "Shifting Perspectives" exhibition in the U.K. in 2005.

Bailey is traveling to Dublin Arts Council for the exhibition, pairing some of his recent images with those from Ohio.

Barb Schwartz, a freelance photographer from Columbus, photographed the couple this summer at Unioto High School and the Ross County Fair.

"I loved meeting Kaitlyn and Alan because they truly exhibit the qualities in people living with Down syndrome that I was hoping to find," Schwartz said. "Their obvious devotion to each other was charming and romantic, and they were fun, patient, and kind through two very long photo shoots. I wish I had more time to spend with them."

Asked about the experience, Blue said, "We love it. We want to see (the photos)."

"I do, too," Brown said.

Brown's mother, Tonya, said the couple was selected to be photographed primarily because they're a couple, "and the fact they're both so involved and the community has been so receptive to them." She said she hopes the photo exhibition will help break the stereotype that people with Down syndrome are not capable.

"I think 'Shifting Perspectives' is a great name for it because they have relationships, they're involved in activities and they're part of the community," she said.

Blue, 18, and Brown, 16, have been dating since he was in eighth grade and she was in seventh grade. Brown simply said they met in speech class, but to hear Blue tell it, the moment was incredibly romantic.

"I looked her in her eyes and asked, 'Will you be my girlfriend?' and she said, 'Yes.'"

Just like any other couple, Blue and Brown enjoy going on dates.

"We like to watch movies, go out to eat and talk," Brown said.

Today, the couple is taking part in the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio's Columbus Buddy Walk at Crew Stadium, where Blue said they'll be holding hands and drinking "10 gallons of Mountain Dew."