{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02839667977282656, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.518072289156627, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Joe Egg, David Healy, and Mothers' and Fathers' Journeys of Change

In the same week that I saw the play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg by Peter Nichols I finished reading the book Up! A Mother’s Journey to Freedom with Her Deaf Son by Leone Healy. Two stories with similar themes: how does one respond to having a child with a disability in a family and what decisions do parents and caregivers make. A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is a play about a secondary school teacher, Brian, his wife, Sheila and their daughter, Joe. It focuses on how Brian and Sheila respond to Joe and her disability and how they react and cope with others’ attitudes and feelings about Joe. We learn that Brian’s way of coping (for most of the play) is to use humour—sometimes used in order to make light of others’ responses to Joe, sometimes to make jokes at the expense of himself, and sometimes in order to create totally absurd scenarios that allow him and Sheila to fantasise about “what might be” in an attempt to deal with the reality. As the play unfolds it becomes obvious from Brian’s and Sheila’s descriptions, explanations, reactions, and responses that they are working out different solutions for their futures. They are moving towards different decisions. The “journeys” that Brian and Sheila are on lead down roads to their separation. Brian’s humour masks his pain and grief. The life he has with Joe and Sheila is too difficult, too painful, and in the final scene Brian is seen leaving the house with a suitcase. He takes the path away from the family home. Up! A Mother’s Journey to Freedom with Her Deaf Son is, as the name of the book suggests, also about paths that one travels in life. Leone Healy gives a very honest account of how she responded to her child’s disability. She writes of her anger, her disappointments, and her battles as she came into contact with doctors, early childhood educators, leaders in the church, politicians, school administrators, parents of other children, and the like. She writes of how she developed an understanding of her child’s disability for herself, of her advocacy, and of her attempts to get appropriate educational provision in order to ensure David had the best chances, to develop friendships, and to achieve academically. Leone Healy writes: