My name is Tracy Rybacki, a high functional Down Syndrome adult who is very creative with words and making short stories. I hope all the people who read this will enjoy my story. My mother and I created the story. 

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Gabby Beaumont, who has Down Syndrome, was shopping with her mother Sarah. Gabby’s father left because he couldn’t deal with a Down Syndrome daughter. The mother wanted to keep her not put her into an institution.

While they were at the doctor’s office, Gabby looked up and spotted a nice, kind, friendly man. 

Gabriel Sorenson was a regular, kind, sweet man, from an Irish-Polish background and all of his family was married and had children, and he wanted to get that connection. He also was ruggedly handsome, and he was a patient at the doctor’s office and saw Gabby, and he introduced himself as Gabriel Sorensen. 

Sarah recognized his name and, in her mind, thought, It is a coincidence with the name. She saw Gabby and Gabriel staring at each other, and it gave Sarah a strange feeling that these two were falling in love. This was love at first sight. 

The next day Gabby and Sarah went shopping, and Gabby and Gabriel spotted each other again. He came up to her. He asked her how she was feeling since he saw her at the doctor’s office.

She shyly said she was better, but when she looked at his eyes, her heart beat very fast.

That they spotted each other again shocked Sarah.

Why do they keep spotting each other?

Then she realized it was true love, their path always meets.

When they got home, after putting things away, her mother asked Gabby what happened that day when they met Gabriel. Gabby said, “A strange but a blessed feeling came over me when I looked into his eyes, and I fell in love.”

Her mother asked her if she knows what love means. Gabby took offense and told her,  “I know I have Down Syndrome, which means that I need help, but I don’t need help falling in love – that’s in my heart.”

This shocked Sarah. Sarah is 43, and Gabriel is 50, and Sarah was scared of an older man falling in love with a younger woman.

She asked Gabby, who said, “True love is found within. It’s not an age or number!”

“I actually saw something happening when you and Gabriel were looking at each other,” Sarah said. “It scares me to let you go into the world alone, and also I don’t want to give you up.” 

Gabby told her, “We don’t have to give up each other, and I won’t be alone. I will be with my spirited friend, and we will fix you a room and you can live with us. You can be our babysitter when I get pregnant. I hope I will be a great mother just like you.” 

When Sarah called Gabriel, she told him the conversation, and she gave him their address over the telephone. 

The next day Gabriel came over to the house. Sarah called Gabby to tell her she had a visitor. She came out and saw Gabriel and smiled, and her heart was pounding. He came out to her and went on one knee and asked her to marry him. 

Sarah was stunned and said, ”You got an engagement ring?” 

He said that he got it on the day they met. 

“When I looked into her eyes,” he said, “I knew I wanted to take care of her for the rest of her life. I know she has Down Syndrome – that is what made me attracted to her. She is sweet, loving, caring and innocent, and I knew in my heart that I wanted to be her spirited friend for a million years, and that to me is a wife.” 

Gabby agreed and said yes. So Sarah let Gabby get married to her spirited friend.

Sarah did all the wedding plans, and in ten years Gabby got pregnant. Now Sarah is a grandmother and babysitter and so proud that Gabby turned out to be just like her. 

One day Gabriel became a famous doctor, and Gabby created a day school called Stepping Stones Day School. They both became famous and rich. 

Now Gabby is married to her spirited bon-ami for the rest of her life. Sarah now has a wonderful big family, and they all lived happy and blessedly ever after.

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Image design: Kalyee Srithnam.