November 25, 2004: Headlines: COS - Saints Kitts: Disabilities: Cerebral Palsy: The Wichita Eagle: Verna Stratton came to St. Kitts to teach children with behavioral disorders as a Peace Corps volunteer. Another volunteer told Verna about Les, a boy with a physical disability, and urged Verna to look into the case. When Les left the hospital, Verna took him home and later adopted him. Nobody argued. When her Peace Corps hitch was up, Verna brought him back here. The U.S. government tried to argue, but lost.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Saint Kitts: Peace Corps Saint Kitts : The Peace Corps in Saint Kitts: November 25, 2004: Headlines: COS - Saints Kitts: Disabilities: Cerebral Palsy: The Wichita Eagle: Verna Stratton came to St. Kitts to teach children with behavioral disorders as a Peace Corps volunteer. Another volunteer told Verna about Les, a boy with a physical disability, and urged Verna to look into the case. When Les left the hospital, Verna took him home and later adopted him. Nobody argued. When her Peace Corps hitch was up, Verna brought him back here. The U.S. government tried to argue, but lost.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-36-89.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.36.89) on Saturday, November 27, 2004 - 7:14 pm: Edit Post

Verna Stratton came to St. Kitts to teach children with behavioral disorders as a Peace Corps volunteer. Another volunteer told Verna about Les, a boy with a physical disability, and urged Verna to look into the case. When Les left the hospital, Verna took him home and later adopted him. Nobody argued. When her Peace Corps hitch was up, Verna brought him back here. The U.S. government tried to argue, but lost.

Verna Stratton came to St. Kitts to teach children with behavioral disorders as a Peace Corps volunteer. Another volunteer told Verna about Les, a boy with a physical disability, and urged Verna to look into the case. When Les left the hospital, Verna took him home and later adopted him. Nobody argued. When her Peace Corps hitch was up, Verna brought him back here. The U.S. government tried to argue, but lost.

Verna Stratton came to St. Kitts to teach children with behavioral disorders as a Peace Corps volunteer. Another volunteer told Verna about Les, a boy with a physical disability, and urged Verna to look into the case. When Les left the hospital, Verna took him home and later adopted him. Nobody argued. When her Peace Corps hitch was up, Verna brought him back here. The U.S. government tried to argue, but lost.

DISABLED FRIEND WAS A TRUE WICHITA HERO

The word "hero" is vastly overused, especially when it is applied to people with disabilities. Choosing not to wallow and self-pity but to lead a good life and seek your bliss is not heroism. It is just being a rational human.

Bruce Leslie "Les" Stratton, who died Oct. 22 at age 28, however, was a hero -- a lovely young man who had overcome evil as a child without being tainted by it. Although his bright and shining life ended too soon, it blessed those of us who were touched by it, and its memory gives special poignancy this Thanksgiving.

Les was born on St. Kitts in the West Indies on April 24, the second of five children. At first, both his father and the woman who bore him (she would never be a mother to him when it mattered to him most) loved their son. But when the time came for him to begin crawling, he failed to do so, and soon it became clear he never would. Nor would he ever talk.

St. Kitts is an island only slightly larger than the District of Columbia, with a population of 39,000, most of whom are descendants of black slaves. Sugarcane is the cash crop, and most people are extremely poor and, by our standards, uneducated.

In that culture, children with cerebral palsy, which Les had, and other physical defects usually don't live long.

They are starved to death.

Why? People there believe that such children are evil or belong to the devil. However you put it, such children curse a family, and the curse can only be lifted if such children die. So they get no food.

Now, Les' father did not believe such nonsense. He loved his second son, as did Les' older brother. So even though Les' father worked several jobs, he came home to care for him. He had to; the woman who bore him wanted him dead.

Because of this fundamental disagreement, Les' father had to move out and leave his son behind. He simply could not care for him on his own, and no other adult member of the family would help.

So, left alone with the woman who bore him and his siblings, Les seemed certain to die of hunger.

But fate and a strong-willed Kansas woman with a voice as flat as her native state intervened.

Verna Stratton had come to St. Kitts to teach children with behavioral disorders as a Peace Corps volunteer. Another volunteer told Verna about a boy with a physical disability and urged Verna to look into the case. Verna thought she was unqualified for that until she met Les.

Verna soon learned that Les had been sleeping under the porch, where the woman who bore him hoped he would die. A neighbor grew indignant and placed him in the hospital where Verna met him.

Imagine what it was like under the porch of a shack. Imagine having a call of nature and then lying in it until morning. Imagine knowing most of your kin want you dead. Imagine all that and not hating God, everyone and the universe. Can you? I honestly can't.

Yet Les, never. Later, after they both learned a rough form of sign language, Les told Verna that Jesus visited him under the porch. I believe that. Les had a joy about him that can't be explained by the first eight years of his life unless a force greater than mankind had touched him.

When Les left the hospital, Verna took him home and later adopted him. Nobody argued. When her Peace Corps hitch was up, Verna brought him back here. The U.S. government tried to argue, but lost.

In Wichita, Les attended Levy Special Education Center. He became very American.

Les became my neighbor seven years ago at the Timbers apartment complex, but I never knew his full story until he died. But I knew he was strong.

Once, he held my hand while I cried. His grip never slipped, his eyes never left mine as he listened to me. I'll remember that grip and those eyes forever, for they belonged to a true hero.

David P. Rundle is a freelance writer in Wichita.





When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

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Story Source: The Wichita Eagle

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Saints Kitts; Disabilities; Cerebral Palsy

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By Davd P. Rundle (98.186.162.4) on Sunday, October 20, 2013 - 10:57 pm: Edit Post

I am the author of the article on your site on Les Stratto of St, Kits. I am both surprised and honored you have it. I am now dedicated to researching cases of people with disabilities who are starved by their parents/caregivers. Tonight, while praying, I remembered Les. I am collecting a dossier ob this syndrome and wanted this article. I googled several phrases until I got Les's surname, which led me here. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you used it. I hope it has helped you. Anyway, Thank you for what you do and for using my work.


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