Izabel was 35 years old when a doctor told her she would never be able to become a mother.
He gave her a cruel label to explain it: “mongolism”, the term once used for Down syndrome. She had grown up in a rural area of Morrinhos, Goiás, Brazil, as the youngest of 19 siblings, without anyone noticing the traits of her condition. They attributed everything to her being the smallest and the most spoiled in the household.
Less than a year after that consultation, she became pregnant with Cristinna, who is now 33 years old and does not have Down syndrome. Izabel married José, her own cousin, at 26, and built a life that science considered almost impossible. Today, at 70, she is the grandmother of three grandchildren and living proof that life expectancy with this condition has changed forever. From just 9 years in 1920 to more than 60 today.
