“Much More Than A Song” By JoAnn Breitling and Joe Martin
MY HUSBAND SAM and I had been married for 13 years in 1982. We had four beautiful daughters when we learned I was expecting again. We both worked in government jobs. Sam was a police officer. I was a mail carrier. Our lives were busy and hectic at times, but we would not have had it any other way. March of 1983, labor started ten days early. I had just stopped working two days before! Our last baby had come so quickly, she was born in the hallway of the hospital! But it was perfectly timed for a December birth, when there is no room at the inn. This labor was different. It was longer. I sensed something was not right. It was kind of a gut feeling. Finally, just after noon, our son arrived! Yes, finally! We had a baby boy! We named him Samuel Matthew, and we would call him “Matthew”. He was our “gift of God.” It was almost two full days before we learned that Matthew had Down syndrome. We had so many questions. There was no Google or Wikipedia---there was not even an internet to go to! We reached out to other parents that met in person and in homes. That is how networks of Down syndrome parents first connected. Sam and I realized that our lives were changed forever. We did not realize how deeply they were changed. Matthew taught us more about the true meaning of life and what was important than we could have ever learned on our own. He almost died during an open-heart surgery…. Thank God he didn’t, and our faith was strengthened. Before we knew it, he had two younger sisters! With seven children, our lives became even busier. It was now necessary for me to work for both the income and medical insurance. As a mail carrier, I walked ten miles a day. And yes, in all kinds of weather. The long walks became almost a spiritual time for me. One day, words to a song about Matthew began to come to me, I could not get to my postal jeep soon enough where I began to write down the words! All that I had to write on was a napkin from lunch. I began to scribble on the napkin and the title came to me…….” A Special Child”! Although all our daughters played musical instruments, none of them knew how to put my words to music. “A Special Child” was a dream that was put on a shelf and forgotten…. for decades. By 2013, Sam and I had both retired. Four of our daughters were married. We had 13 grandchildren! Suddenly, our youngest daughter got engaged. She lived 260 miles away! How would I ever plan a wedding with that distance? Like a divine intervention, doors began to open. We had the chance to move 260 miles and be parents of the bride, while another daughter and her family were excited to move into our family home. Sam was hesitant but finally we took a leap of
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