I come from quite a big family consisting of myself and four other siblings. Granted, my parents weren’t initially planning to have this many children. Myself and my eldest brother were around first. My parents then thought they’d try for a girl as my mum was tired of being the only female in the family among a ruckus of males. Well, let’s just say my parents got their wish. Not only did they get a girl, they got three girls. Our family of two parents and two children was shot to a family of seven people within what felt like an instant.
Within the surprise set of triplets, one of them was born with a disability. We didn’t realise it initially but it was something that became more apparent as the years went on. It was almost as if she turned three years old and sort of stayed three years old from that point onwards.
She is now twenty-nine. Last year we all made the decision that she needed proper care and that we weren’t able to give her the care that she deserved. I started researching the best speciality disability accommodation near me. Wherever we were planning to send our sister to live, needed to be caring, kind and nurturing. The day she left was extremely difficult. There was an air of guilt in our family as we worried we had made the wrong decision. There was also the fear that she wouldn’t know entirely what was going on, and as a result, have a panic attack or meltdown. Once we visited her a few days later, our concerns were put to ease. We were greeted by the biggest hug and smile. It was truly beautiful.
Support coordination in Adelaide is truly fantastic. My lovely sister always has a smile on her face when we see her and is carrying different art projects that she wants to show us. Putting her in a care home has really helped her social skills and definitely brought out a whole new confident side to her.