Family Personifies Resiliency

MASON, Ohio -- They never thought of themselves as pioneers, never considered themselves more remarkable than any other family.
Dolores and Pat Diangelo of Mason were raising three boys, ages 11, 13 and 15, when their daughter, Gina, was born 41 years ago.
"We just treated her like a normal kid, like the rest of the kids," says Pat, who like his wife is now 80.
But in 1970 much of the rest of the world wasn't ready to embrace a child like Gina, who has Down syndrome. Doctors and a priest advised the couple to place the girl in an institution. Federal legislation requiring public schools to educate students with developmental disabilities was still years away.
And yet, the Diangelos were able to cope because they possess a quality that researchers call resiliency.
"Resiliency is learning not only to survive, but learning to thrive," says Thomas Knestrict, an associate professor in the Department of Childhood Education and Literacy at Xavier University.