I found that I have little patience reading novels ever since I graduated from Poly 5 years back. Now that I am studying Mass Communications, I realise the need to reflect and not just skim through. I have the habit of skimming through Chapter one and the last chapter. I have never finished a novel. Rex is my another attempt to read a novel.
Rex is poignant and full of human emotions. Written by Cathleen Lewis, the story brings the reader to the writer's shoes. When doctors told her that her son was born blind, she felt her body disconnecting from her mind in the most bizarre way upon hearing these words.
"I felt the blow in my gut , but my mind went numb, unable to grasp what he'd just said"
Her son's loud wails at the telephone ringing dealt her another blow. To most of us, the sound is nothing. But to her son Rex, it throws him off the balance.
"Rex rammed his fingers into his ears, his body beginning to shake as did mine. I lifted him out of his high chair and hugged him tight, singing in his ear.
"Physical pressure seemed to help his nerves as did singing, even if my voice was wobbly".
Her son was later diagnosed as autistic. By then her husband divorced her, leaving her to raise her son alone. 75% of couples with severely disabled children divorce.
Her savings from her days working in the financial world helped them to tide over. As time passed, Rex became a gifted pianist. CBS profiled Rex twice for 60 Minutes and a Britsh production The Music Genius.
It is a book that helps me to understand the struggles of a mother raising a blind child with autism. I hope more people will pick up this book and understand that severly disabled children have their gifts and talents that are useful to society. Sometimes society is ignorant or in denial of the children's usefulness and productivity.
For Cathleen, her son's gift to her is in his soothing music that springs out of a hidden, joyful heart.
