A Voice is Given to Institutionalized “Secret Girl”

Author shares story of connecting with her institutionalized mentally retarded sister in a memoir released this week.

Rehoboth Beach, DE (PRWEB) March 22, 2006 -- According to The ARC, (Association for Retarded Citizens) as many as 3 out of every 100 people in the United States have mental retardation. Mental retardation, a term often misunderstood and seen as derogatory, is when a person has certain limitations in mental functioning and in skills such as communicating, taking care of him or herself, and social skills. These limitations will cause people to learn and develop more slowly than a typical person.

In the past, parents were often advised to institutionalize a child with mental retardation. “I didn’t meet Anne until we were both in our thirties although we’d lived most of our lives less than half an hour apart. She was born with hydrocephalus and our parents institutionalized her from birth,” states Molly Bruce Jacobs, author of “Secret Girl” (ISBN 0312320949) released this week. “I didn’t even know she existed until I was 13.” Today, the goal is to help the child with mental retardation stay in the family and take part in community life.

“Secret Girl” is a memoir about a family that for decades guarded a secret they felt too ashamed to reveal, much less speak of among themselves. “Anne inspired me to write ‘Secret Girl.’ I wanted to give voice to her story, and to others like her, because it was a story she couldn’t tell herself, and an important story that needed to be told,” continues Jacobs. “I felt compelled to write about her, what institutional life had been for her, how she’d been virtually abandoned as unacceptable and too imperfect to acknowledge, a shameful secret no one talked about.”

There used to be many ‘secret children’ like Anne who were considered worthless human beings. “I think of them as invisible people,” laments Jacobs. “Forgotten souls. I think it is important not only for individual families, but also for our society to acknowledge, and not forget, the truth and tragedy of this legacy.”

After knowing Anne, Jacobs’ perceptions of mentally retarded people changed dramatically. “I don’t think that I had much interaction at all with disabled people as I was growing up. They weren’t a part of my world,” explains Jacobs. “Mentally retarded people were like foreigners to me, foreigners that I didn’t understand at all and couldn’t relate to, and who I imagined couldn’t relate to me.”

Molly Bruce Jacobs graduated from Cornell University. After working for the National Council for US-China Trade in Washington, D.C., she went on to receive a law degree from Columbia University, practiced law for several years, then turned to writing full-time. She divides her time between western Massachusetts and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “Secret Girl” may be purchased at any bookstore or through Jacobs’ website: http://www.mollybrucejacobs.com or contact Jennifer Prost, Publicist at (973) 746-8723.

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