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Trinity People<br />
Testimony<br />
At the ‘Refresh’ meeting in November Angie gave a wonderful testimony of how<br />
God’s love supported and upheld her during a very difficult time in her life, and<br />
continues to do so. Maggie Bruce prompted her with questions. Her testimony<br />
is long, but it would be a shame to omit any of the important steps in her<br />
life, so it’s reproduced here in full. Maggie’s prompts are in italic print.<br />
I have been trying to remember when we first met and think it must have been in<br />
the 1990s. I was working very part time as a community paediatrician in<br />
Crawley, Horsham and EG area and heard via my professional network that a<br />
baby with Down's syndrome had been born into an East Grinstead family. I<br />
subsequently found out that a friend at Trinity called Linda was a neighbour of<br />
the mum and the mum's name was Angie! I think the birth of Megan was a<br />
pivotal moment in your life and the beginning of your God journey - could you tell<br />
us more?<br />
Yes. Megan’s birth in 1990 was very much a pivotal moment and the beginning<br />
of my road back to God. I had been part of a church as a child and I would say I<br />
had a simple childlike faith when I was younger. But as often happens, I reached<br />
my teenage years and refused to go any more. After that I very rarely went to a<br />
church and if I was asked I would say to people, ‘I’m a good person, why do I<br />
need to go to church?’<br />
Lawrence and I married in 1975 and we had two girls who were aged 10 and 8<br />
when Megan came along. In those days there were no blood tests to assess your<br />
risk factor of having a child with Down’s syndrome, only an amniocentesis test<br />
which could be carried out if you were aged 35 or over; I was 34. I had a very<br />
easy pregnancy but Megan showed signs of distress during the labour and had to<br />
be born by emergency caesarean. So a few hours after the birth I was still<br />
groggy from the anaesthetic and they told me they suspected Megan had<br />
Down’s syndrome. I was in total shock and cried almost nonstop; they very<br />
quickly moved me into a private room away from the other mums, which was<br />
helpful in some ways but also made me feel alone and isolated. I had very little<br />
experience of anybody with a learning disability and I was very afraid for the<br />
future.
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