2016
From: Rick Roderick
From their birth in 1943, twins Judith and Joyce Scott shared a childhood of togetherness in rural Ohio in the US. But aged seven, Judith was taken from their shared bed while Joyce slept.
“I remember reaching my hand out, and reaching it further, and further… and she wasn’t there.”
Joyce woke up to a new world – a world where her beloved twin, Judith, lived in an institution.
Judith had Down’s Syndrome, and in the 1950s it was common for doctors to recommend sending children with disabilities away.
“At night when she was gone, I would pile up the things next to me, the things she loved, and feel them as I went to sleep, just to feel that connection.”
For the next three decades, Joyce’s life was punctured by grief and secrets. She moved to California where she could pretend not to be “a twin without her sister”. It was there she found her calling: helping mothers who had children with disabilities.
In her 40s, Joyce resolved to rescue her sister from a life inside an institution, unaware that this reunion would spark the emergence of Judith as a world-renowned artist.
Hear more of Joyce and Judith’s story on Outlook:
https://bbc.in/4gkit5H
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