A SPECIAL KIND OF LOVE
Linda Ballard is a Southern Baptist chaplain at Sunland Center in Gainesville, Florida. It is an institutional home for 750 “developmentally disabled” people, who have been diagnosed as having mental retardation, autism, epilepsy and/or cerebral palsy. Residents range in age from George, a tiny child who sits strapped in a stroller, to Helen, 88, who lies waxen and puffy, breathing by respirator and nourished only by tubes. The typical median chronological age of Sunland residents is 41; the median mental age is harder to determine — perhaps four or five years. On Sunday mornings, a third — 250 or more — of Sunland’s residents shuffle, lurch, stumble, stagger, amble and whir in motorized wheelchairs to the chapel auditorium. Into the choir go 15 or 20. The choir sings fervently, incomprehensibly. Scripture is read, more or less; most residents are semi-literate, at best. Ballard prays, leads the Lord’s prayer. The group joins in ragged unison. She speaks simply to their…
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