Parsing the Whit: Real and Imagined

By William Scott

Parsing gets to the heart of Whitney. It's how she is, how she functions in an environment contrary to her abilities, how she communicates in her world, and how she continues to exist in a hostile environment or culture that looks at her as "strange."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098019488

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Parsing the Whit

Real and Imagined

William A. Scott

Copyright © 2020 by William A. Scott

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Parsing the Whit

Whitney B. Real

Looking Back

Montclair

Parsing Ends

I dedicate this short story to a lot of people because a lot of people have helped me continue to live despite the difficulty of that task. You see, I wasn’t supposed to live this long. I’m in my late thirties—what a miracle. I had and still have many physical issues that started from birth. Notwithstanding all those folks who have helped me and the people who have been in positions of prominence, at the fore are my mom, my grandma, and my brother Garland and his wife, Cristin.

It is to them that I specifically dedicate this account of me.

Introduction

This is an account of our daughter, Whitney Brooke Scott. Even before she was born, we parlayed over what to call her. I wanted to name her after my maternal grandmother, whose maiden name is White. My wife agreed to the first name after we dropped the e and attached the ney to it, but she was in love with Brooke for the middle name. We spelled it Brook at first, but finally decided to put an e at the end. Without us really knowing it, the name fits Whitney Brooke Scott’s personality to the letter. My grandmother stood about four-feet-eight. Whitney is about the same height. My grandma weighed no more than 115 pounds, soaking wet. Whitney reached seventy pounds earlier in her life, but with her frustration over the move to our present address, she dropped below sixty. Of late, she has again reached seventy-plus. But the strength of my grandma’s character, if you could weigh it, was well over seventy tons. Whitney has inherited Mudda’s personality and fortitude—all her strong character traits. She has also been blessed with the strength and toughness of her Meemommie (my wife’s Mom). Like both, she never gives in or gives up on anything. Maternal spiritual love, it seems—based on Olodumare of the African Yoruba religion, as articulated by my grandma—has been passed down to the Whit—a nickname given to her by Willie House, the now-deceased musical virtuoso from Austin, Texas when she was about eight years old.

Whitney was born in June 1980 with multiple disabilities. From the very start of her life to now, she has overcome nearly all of them. We don’t know what happened during the pregnancy since there was no indication of any problems whatsoever. She reached the full term, but at birth, her physical and mental problems emerged. Her personality varies from wonderful to its antonym (awful). On a daily basis, this variation triggers behavior that is demanding and controlling. As a result of her frustration over her inability to communicate her wants, she becomes very angry. Nonetheless, she is not a mean-spirited young lady and often displays the positive side of her personality. She is very healthy and rarely has any serious medical issues. She has had so many bad experiences with doctors—from her point of view, of course—that she hates going for routine checkups or blood work or flu shots. But she loves going to the beauty salon to get her hair done. Her mom and grandma (Shirley Murphy) are the joys of her life, even while we, other bystanders, adore her so much with more than maternal or familial love.

Whitney tells her story from her beginnings, taking