Thursday-morning visitors are not on her to-do list, but Christina is learning to cope with the unexpected. She opens the door to her new studio apartment on the edge of Portland, Maine's old downtown, and ushers in her guests. "Would you like a drink?" she asks, carefully pouring a glass of water. The tidy, dormlike room is painted peach, and posters of Usher and Queen Latifah decorate the wall over the single bed. In fact, there is nothing unusual about the apartment, except that until recently its occupant, Christina Mailhot, born with Down syndrome, never dreamed she would be living on her own. A short, heavyset blonde with a ruddy complexion, she battles hourly with an acute awareness of her limitations. Hence the list.
But at the age of 27, Christina—alternately thrilled and terrified—is very definitely living on her own. "Sometimes I get so excited that I have my own home I go nuts," she says, fighting her way through a speech impediment that gets more pronounced when she's nervous. "I have my privacy! And my space!"
As she gingerly steps into adult life, Christina knows she owes her independence to others. For the past two years, she has lived and studied at STRIVE U, a program on the campus of the University of Southern Maine that teaches people with developmental disabilities to lead autonomous lives. Until recently, students like Christina and her five classmates could have expected, at best, a high school diploma. Today, because of better medicine and longer life expectancy, access to public education and job opportunities protected by law, Christina and her friends are charting new territory. "There's a new generation of people who have outgrown the old system," says Christina's mom, Irene Mailhot, "and when she calls me in the morning and says, 'I'm happy and so glad to be independent,' that makes me feel so good. The safety of home still pulls at her, and she's scared sometimes. But she's not willing to go back."
Raised in Lewiston, Maine, Christina has had a tough life. Her father died of cancer when she was 8, leaving Irene, now 54, a former teacher's aide now studying social work, to raise Christina and two older brothers alone. Mainstreamed in public schools, she received extra lessons in science and math. Classwork wasn't the only challenge. "High school was the hardest part of my life," she says. "The kids called me a retard constantly. I had one friend."
After high school, Christina lived at home, working as a Wal-Mart security guard—until she caught a pair of shoplifters and decided the job was too "scary," she says. With no plans for the future, she spent her time making scrapbooks of rap stars. "I was in my room all the time," she recalls. When a friend told the family about STRIVE, Christina says, "I told my mom I really want to go." From more than 100 candidates, she was picked for her "tremendous motivation," says Peter Brown, program manager for STRIVE (which stands for socialization, transition, reflection, innovation, vocation, education).
At STRIVE, where Christina paid the $12,000 tuition with work income and her Social Security checks, she lived in a dorm, took one college class a year (art and German, her mother's native language) and learned basic life skills like cleaning, cooking and commuting in intensive daylong classes. The lessons were painstaking: For grocery shopping, the students not only made shopping lists, they studied maps of the store and memorized which aisles to visit. "I took a crime scene investigation class, and that was pretty cool," says Jeff Goranites, 24. Off-campus, students carried walkie-talkies to allow staff to track their whereabouts.
With an IQ of 70 and an 11th-grade reading level, Christina admits she never really did master her money-management lessons. "Me and math don't mix," she says. "When I first came here, I spent all my money on magazines, CDs, junk food and sodas." And even with daily food education, an on-site nutritionist and exercise classes—Down syndrome slows the metabolism and can lead to obesity—Christina retained few lessons on nutrition: She gained 60 lbs. in the past two years and, on a recent weekly shopping trip, bought a frozen pizza and a single potato. "They did the best they could," says her mother, who is nevertheless thankful. "I absolutely never imagined her living in an apartment and taking a bus by herself. I did hope, yes, but before STRIVE it was unrealistic."
Christina says the most important lesson she has learned is to "try to be more flexible," a challenge for people with Down syndrome, who need structure to complete basic tasks. During the first year of the program, she met her first boyfriend, Nate Doucette, 23, who eventually left STRIVE because he couldn't stick to the rigid schedule. The pair have rap-style nicknames for each other—she is C-Money and he is Nate-Dog—and, once Christina moved into her own apartment last June, began to spend three or four nights a week together. (Christina learned about contraception at STRIVE and isn't interested in having children.) "I think it's nice she has a relationship," says Irene. "At the same time, I am worried because the two of them don't make the best choices." The pair recently spent $22 on ice cream, and ate it in a sitting. "That's a lot of ice cream," says Irene drily. "I was just astounded when I heard about it."
Christina has landed a campus job in data entry and, with her monthly Social Security check, now makes enough to pay rent on her subsidized apartment. Still, at her graduation ceremony in August, "I was in a panic," she admits. The two years at STRIVE had been packed with emotion. A 21-year-old classmate died suddenly of a cardiac infection; then, in June of last year, her brother Kevin, 25, died in a motorcycle crash. Christina says she still spends whole nights crying. But as she took the microphone to address the assembly, her eyes twinkled. "You can make it this far if you believe in yourself," she said. "After two years, I have my own apartment and I love it. Yeah! I have my own place."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
