hi my name is Wendy gelger and I’m much
better known as Brees mom 38 years ago
now I was living pretty much an ideal
life I ran a ski school as a director of
an Alpine Ski School in a small-scale
village in the Laurentian Mountains
north of Montreal Canada I was married
we had a wonderful home overlooking a
lake where we water skied in the summer
and we literally could cross-country ski
out our door in winter
great friends we lived in Quebec you
know five-star restaurants wonderful
French wine we’re young tons of friends
we had powder skied in Valdez Air France
cross-country ski and Finland I had
spent two summers when I was in college
in the summers hitchhiking in Europe so
it was good and the future looked great
then April 2nd 1980 our daughter was
born a rare child one in 50,000 38 years
ago it wasn’t even recognized as one in
50,000 I think there was like 800 known
cases we were both it wasn’t genetic we
were both tested it just was a rare
child that we had the diagnosis was
Woolf her choice syndrome or 4p – which
is much easier to grasp it’s on the T
arm of the court the fourth chromosome
there’s a deletion and the amount of
deletion indicated the severity of the
condition the prognosis was Bree would
never recognize us
she’d never move she’d be lucky to live
to five and she would have seizures that
would take over her life even with
medication I went home from that
doctor’s appointment
and it the only way I can describe it it
felt like when I one time took a hard
fall skiing and the wind was knocked out
of me and you just can’t get your air it
feels like you’ll never be able to
breathe again but did you get your air
but in this condition this situation it
felt like I was never ever gonna breathe
again this was a yeah I entered the
world I had no idea what to do I had no
experience no knowledge whatsoever the
only things I had where unconditional
love and perseverance which my parents
taught all of us and I’ve always been a
reader always loved to read so I just
you know where there’s a will what
there’s a way at least that’s how I was
raised
so I figured I’m just gonna search and
find away so I kept reading and reading
and the first breakthrough came with a
book that seemed to fall off the shelf
called what to do about your brain and
your child by Glenn Dolman who was the
founder of the Institute’s for the
achievement achievement of human
potential in Philadelphia and there they
work with NASA they work with early
learning but they also work with special
needs children brain injured children
and that was the first change that
changed everything for us within no time
I’m doing a stimulation program seven
days a week 14 hours a day and within I
would eight months Bri went from being
at two and a half years old being
totally mobile to creeping up in a
perfect cross pattern creep up on all
fours now that changes your life when
you go from not moving to moving you can
now thought of a burning building the
next breakthrough came basically because
Brees seizures were getting in the way
of her progress and on one of the Rivas
to Philadelphia I was talking to one of
the other moms and she shared with me
that there was this family she knew who
was doing something called macrobiotics
and that it was working for their child
their seizure child I had no idea what
this was but my I was determined to try
it at least so I started reading
researching and making phone calls and
then I am learning a macrobiotic diet
which is a traditional Japanese diet
within two years and I’ll just lead up
to this a bit Brie’s grand mal seizures
at this point she was having six to
seven a year they were always four hours
long and she was having hundreds of
p’tee miles a day so within two years
the grand mouth stopped and that did it
that got my attention in the pub with
the power of plant-based diet to change
your life and so she’s now getting
stronger it also you know when I read
the quote that Hippocrates the father of
Medicine said let food be thy medicine
yeah we forgotten that but it’s true
so now brees passing five years old
she’s stronger she’s able to maintain
herself she’s still very fragile and now
in this process I’m learning the
correlation between food allergies and
seizures
so my knowledge is growing and at the
same time that I’m reading to support
her I have to read to support myself to
motivate myself and inspire myself and I
was reading people like Victor Frankel’s
man’s search for meaning which is one of
the 10 most influential books and Vanier
who was son of a Governor General of
Canada who started the large communities
all over the world and Victor Frankel
said that in the West
unfortunately we only value the young
and those who we perceive as useful
otherwise our everybody else we consider
valueless so here I am I’m caring for my
child who’s considered valueless and
what I’m doing is considered valueless
what that does to because I am basically
a single mother at poverty level trying
to raise my child and what that does it
makes life a hundred times more
difficult because when you’re not valued
and what you’re doing is not valued
there is no support everything you have
to fight for and a quick example of that
it took 27 years for me to get aids
support in my home for my daughter which
is I can’t even wrap my head around how
that could be so I’m reading these
inspirational books and I’m using these
most motivational books and I’m changing
so I’m gone I’m going seeing myself and
my mind changed because I was brought up
in this society that doesn’t value what
I was doing or my daughter and it’s
basically what did I do and what did my
daughter do to deserve this and it’s now
changing around and I’m starting to see
the longer I live with my daughter that
I’m becoming a better person and I’m
changing and as my knowledge increases
it becomes how did I look into having
this amazing child the gifts of bri-bri
was always interesting there’s Bri we
call that creepy meditation Tecna Han
teaches walking meditation my daughter
insisted we crept every day to creep
with her
you better be present you better have
fun and please don’t rush me
which we all should know about our work
and and if I felt I needed to be rushed
or busy or something she would do the
what we called the awful cry and when
she did the awful cry it just broke your
heart so he never wanted to it’s like on
sore him so sorry rush you the other
thing was she insisted I be in the
present moment so you know this little
kid that everybody considered oh well
what does she know did a clapping hands
game very simple she would insist on
doing that where she would clap like
this and then she’d switch it up and do
these really he couldn’t hear claps and
sometimes she’d touch and she sometimes
she wouldn’t and then she’d do different
claps again and mix it up and I never
won a game in 37 years so you know who
is the hurt person here I think it was
me and you know she never amazed me so
she this little beam is teaching me
because I read a lot of spiritual books
during this stuff she’s teaching me what
these books are talking about she you
know Here I am eating this wonderful
diet another gift from her because to
keep her alive she needed this diet and
so and I needed as the person cooking
for her to eat the diet to be able to be
the best cook possible for her so she’s
working on me all the time her needs
become more my needs little did I know
because Here I am changing diapers and
looking after her but she’s she’s really
keeping an eye on me patients you know
you go through a lot it’s hard in this
society it’s extremely hard to raise a
rare child because you’re alienated
people really you’re isolated so you
you’re in a position to always have to
motivate you
self but and we lived in you know like I
looked at it she kept me in a way
through caring for her she kept me safe
in this world of amazing plant-based
foods great books great music and and I
just kept gaining from this so I think
of there’s so many gifts I mean I’m just
hitting on some of the highlights of my
daughter I don’t think I would have been
forced into the spiritual growth that I
was forced into just to keep myself sane
because of the isolation and the our
society we do it with the elderly we do
with their veterans coming back anybody
that we perceive as they’re not useful
to us anymore the support disappears the
alienation happens and I feel that I was
so lucky to have this little girl that
she was a tremendous gift to me that in
a strange way and I know it’s hard to
think about it this way but it was like
I got to birth this amazing teacher
and our society does not see her as an
amazing teacher because she didn’t
perform physically in the way we all
expect people to perform you know I
remember years ago someone said oh
they’re doing so much for the
handicapped and a very nice person they
weren’t saying this in any derogative
way and I said we’re all handicapped
when I think of my daughter you know yes
mentally you know I’m functioning
physically I’m functioning skiing and
all the sports and stuff but emotionally
and spiritually when she found me and I
still have a ways to go but she left me
much better than she found me Bri was
much more advanced emotionally and
spiritually than I could have ever
dreamed of being so then on January 5th
2017 pretty passed away peacefully sorry
um she was creeping on a Monday passed
away with us around the house with me
and on Thursday she passed away of
kidney failure but she had lived 32
years beyond her prognosis who wouldn’t
take that who wouldn’t take you’ve been
given a death sentence and lived 32
years longer she was healthy and happy
at home she always knew she was loved
and wanted everybody in the world wants
to know they’re loved and wanted I was
given through Bri Viktor Frankl said
this again that the you know we’re all
searching for meaning in our lives
searching for purpose people are having
conferences on finding your purpose you
know and the three things that do that
are you find it in your work through
doing something a meaning you find it in
love for caring for someone or you find
it encouraged through going through
difficult circumstances I lucked into
having all three every day that I woke
up raising this beautiful child I no
matter how I felt no matter how
overwhelmed depressed afraid I woke up
knowing that I was on purpose with this
child
so I can’t emphasize enough how I felt
feel that she was the the best gift I
could have received in this lifetime and
I just feel so grateful for that
you know in high school I read I
remember that I love this poem always
have not really good on poems more a
book person but I love this one it’s the
Robert Frost one were two baths diverged
in a yellow wood and that that path
least one made all the difference and
that’s what I got to do and it made all
the difference I am such a better person
than I ever was when Bree was born to me
so now I’m gonna leave you with a
question that our brains aren’t set up
to accept our brains are gonna say he’ll
know right away because we’ve been
trained in the West but from my
experience I want to leave with you with
what if our value systems were different
what if we have it all wrong and
personally I think we do what if instead
of having a special needs rare brain
injured child is the dread of every
parent is considered a burden what if
that’s an honor to receive a child like
my daughter what if somehow you’ve
you’re actually being blessed and this
is something to want because the
potential growth is awesome and I can’t
think of anything that could have grown
me as much as that experience and so I
leave you with that question and this
beautiful little one and I thank you
very much [Applause]
better known as Brees mom 38 years ago
now I was living pretty much an ideal
life I ran a ski school as a director of
an Alpine Ski School in a small-scale
village in the Laurentian Mountains
north of Montreal Canada I was married
we had a wonderful home overlooking a
lake where we water skied in the summer
and we literally could cross-country ski
out our door in winter
great friends we lived in Quebec you
know five-star restaurants wonderful
French wine we’re young tons of friends
we had powder skied in Valdez Air France
cross-country ski and Finland I had
spent two summers when I was in college
in the summers hitchhiking in Europe so
it was good and the future looked great
then April 2nd 1980 our daughter was
born a rare child one in 50,000 38 years
ago it wasn’t even recognized as one in
50,000 I think there was like 800 known
cases we were both it wasn’t genetic we
were both tested it just was a rare
child that we had the diagnosis was
Woolf her choice syndrome or 4p – which
is much easier to grasp it’s on the T
arm of the court the fourth chromosome
there’s a deletion and the amount of
deletion indicated the severity of the
condition the prognosis was Bree would
never recognize us
she’d never move she’d be lucky to live
to five and she would have seizures that
would take over her life even with
medication I went home from that
doctor’s appointment
and it the only way I can describe it it
felt like when I one time took a hard
fall skiing and the wind was knocked out
of me and you just can’t get your air it
feels like you’ll never be able to
breathe again but did you get your air
but in this condition this situation it
felt like I was never ever gonna breathe
again this was a yeah I entered the
world I had no idea what to do I had no
experience no knowledge whatsoever the
only things I had where unconditional
love and perseverance which my parents
taught all of us and I’ve always been a
reader always loved to read so I just
you know where there’s a will what
there’s a way at least that’s how I was
raised
so I figured I’m just gonna search and
find away so I kept reading and reading
and the first breakthrough came with a
book that seemed to fall off the shelf
called what to do about your brain and
your child by Glenn Dolman who was the
founder of the Institute’s for the
achievement achievement of human
potential in Philadelphia and there they
work with NASA they work with early
learning but they also work with special
needs children brain injured children
and that was the first change that
changed everything for us within no time
I’m doing a stimulation program seven
days a week 14 hours a day and within I
would eight months Bri went from being
at two and a half years old being
totally mobile to creeping up in a
perfect cross pattern creep up on all
fours now that changes your life when
you go from not moving to moving you can
now thought of a burning building the
next breakthrough came basically because
Brees seizures were getting in the way
of her progress and on one of the Rivas
to Philadelphia I was talking to one of
the other moms and she shared with me
that there was this family she knew who
was doing something called macrobiotics
and that it was working for their child
their seizure child I had no idea what
this was but my I was determined to try
it at least so I started reading
researching and making phone calls and
then I am learning a macrobiotic diet
which is a traditional Japanese diet
within two years and I’ll just lead up
to this a bit Brie’s grand mal seizures
at this point she was having six to
seven a year they were always four hours
long and she was having hundreds of
p’tee miles a day so within two years
the grand mouth stopped and that did it
that got my attention in the pub with
the power of plant-based diet to change
your life and so she’s now getting
stronger it also you know when I read
the quote that Hippocrates the father of
Medicine said let food be thy medicine
yeah we forgotten that but it’s true
so now brees passing five years old
she’s stronger she’s able to maintain
herself she’s still very fragile and now
in this process I’m learning the
correlation between food allergies and
seizures
so my knowledge is growing and at the
same time that I’m reading to support
her I have to read to support myself to
motivate myself and inspire myself and I
was reading people like Victor Frankel’s
man’s search for meaning which is one of
the 10 most influential books and Vanier
who was son of a Governor General of
Canada who started the large communities
all over the world and Victor Frankel
said that in the West
unfortunately we only value the young
and those who we perceive as useful
otherwise our everybody else we consider
valueless so here I am I’m caring for my
child who’s considered valueless and
what I’m doing is considered valueless
what that does to because I am basically
a single mother at poverty level trying
to raise my child and what that does it
makes life a hundred times more
difficult because when you’re not valued
and what you’re doing is not valued
there is no support everything you have
to fight for and a quick example of that
it took 27 years for me to get aids
support in my home for my daughter which
is I can’t even wrap my head around how
that could be so I’m reading these
inspirational books and I’m using these
most motivational books and I’m changing
so I’m gone I’m going seeing myself and
my mind changed because I was brought up
in this society that doesn’t value what
I was doing or my daughter and it’s
basically what did I do and what did my
daughter do to deserve this and it’s now
changing around and I’m starting to see
the longer I live with my daughter that
I’m becoming a better person and I’m
changing and as my knowledge increases
it becomes how did I look into having
this amazing child the gifts of bri-bri
was always interesting there’s Bri we
call that creepy meditation Tecna Han
teaches walking meditation my daughter
insisted we crept every day to creep
with her
you better be present you better have
fun and please don’t rush me
which we all should know about our work
and and if I felt I needed to be rushed
or busy or something she would do the
what we called the awful cry and when
she did the awful cry it just broke your
heart so he never wanted to it’s like on
sore him so sorry rush you the other
thing was she insisted I be in the
present moment so you know this little
kid that everybody considered oh well
what does she know did a clapping hands
game very simple she would insist on
doing that where she would clap like
this and then she’d switch it up and do
these really he couldn’t hear claps and
sometimes she’d touch and she sometimes
she wouldn’t and then she’d do different
claps again and mix it up and I never
won a game in 37 years so you know who
is the hurt person here I think it was
me and you know she never amazed me so
she this little beam is teaching me
because I read a lot of spiritual books
during this stuff she’s teaching me what
these books are talking about she you
know Here I am eating this wonderful
diet another gift from her because to
keep her alive she needed this diet and
so and I needed as the person cooking
for her to eat the diet to be able to be
the best cook possible for her so she’s
working on me all the time her needs
become more my needs little did I know
because Here I am changing diapers and
looking after her but she’s she’s really
keeping an eye on me patients you know
you go through a lot it’s hard in this
society it’s extremely hard to raise a
rare child because you’re alienated
people really you’re isolated so you
you’re in a position to always have to
motivate you
self but and we lived in you know like I
looked at it she kept me in a way
through caring for her she kept me safe
in this world of amazing plant-based
foods great books great music and and I
just kept gaining from this so I think
of there’s so many gifts I mean I’m just
hitting on some of the highlights of my
daughter I don’t think I would have been
forced into the spiritual growth that I
was forced into just to keep myself sane
because of the isolation and the our
society we do it with the elderly we do
with their veterans coming back anybody
that we perceive as they’re not useful
to us anymore the support disappears the
alienation happens and I feel that I was
so lucky to have this little girl that
she was a tremendous gift to me that in
a strange way and I know it’s hard to
think about it this way but it was like
I got to birth this amazing teacher
and our society does not see her as an
amazing teacher because she didn’t
perform physically in the way we all
expect people to perform you know I
remember years ago someone said oh
they’re doing so much for the
handicapped and a very nice person they
weren’t saying this in any derogative
way and I said we’re all handicapped
when I think of my daughter you know yes
mentally you know I’m functioning
physically I’m functioning skiing and
all the sports and stuff but emotionally
and spiritually when she found me and I
still have a ways to go but she left me
much better than she found me Bri was
much more advanced emotionally and
spiritually than I could have ever
dreamed of being so then on January 5th
2017 pretty passed away peacefully sorry
um she was creeping on a Monday passed
away with us around the house with me
and on Thursday she passed away of
kidney failure but she had lived 32
years beyond her prognosis who wouldn’t
take that who wouldn’t take you’ve been
given a death sentence and lived 32
years longer she was healthy and happy
at home she always knew she was loved
and wanted everybody in the world wants
to know they’re loved and wanted I was
given through Bri Viktor Frankl said
this again that the you know we’re all
searching for meaning in our lives
searching for purpose people are having
conferences on finding your purpose you
know and the three things that do that
are you find it in your work through
doing something a meaning you find it in
love for caring for someone or you find
it encouraged through going through
difficult circumstances I lucked into
having all three every day that I woke
up raising this beautiful child I no
matter how I felt no matter how
overwhelmed depressed afraid I woke up
knowing that I was on purpose with this
child
so I can’t emphasize enough how I felt
feel that she was the the best gift I
could have received in this lifetime and
I just feel so grateful for that
you know in high school I read I
remember that I love this poem always
have not really good on poems more a
book person but I love this one it’s the
Robert Frost one were two baths diverged
in a yellow wood and that that path
least one made all the difference and
that’s what I got to do and it made all
the difference I am such a better person
than I ever was when Bree was born to me
so now I’m gonna leave you with a
question that our brains aren’t set up
to accept our brains are gonna say he’ll
know right away because we’ve been
trained in the West but from my
experience I want to leave with you with
what if our value systems were different
what if we have it all wrong and
personally I think we do what if instead
of having a special needs rare brain
injured child is the dread of every
parent is considered a burden what if
that’s an honor to receive a child like
my daughter what if somehow you’ve
you’re actually being blessed and this
is something to want because the
potential growth is awesome and I can’t
think of anything that could have grown
me as much as that experience and so I
leave you with that question and this
beautiful little one and I thank you
very much [Applause]
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