Dale Evans Rogers, Angel Unaware (Westwood, N.J. Revell, 1953).
Dale Evans Rogers, the author of this brief and touching book, was the wife of western actor Roy Rogers and a celebrity entertainer in her own right; she appeared alongside her husband in films and on television. The book told the story of the Rogers’ baby girl, Robin, born in 1950 with the “appalling handicap” of Down syndrome, often called “mongaloidism” at the time. The Rogers cared for their baby at home before she died of a heart condition two years later. Angel Unaware was narrated by Robin, speaking from heaven right after her death. It promoted conventional Christian lessons about the true meaning of life, describing children with mental retardation as angelic, pure expressions of love sent to parents to deliver God’s plan and spread God’s glory on earth. In spite of its sentimentality, the book brought attention to mental retardation at a time when it was still shrouded in secrecy and when institutionalization was often considered the only option for parents and families. Dale Evans Rogers wrote a song to accompany the book. Sales helped to fund the National Association for Retarded Children during its early years.
Oh, Father, it’s good to be home again. I thought sometimes that You had forgotten me, Down There. Two years Up Here doesn’t seem like much, but on earth it can be a long, long time—and it was long, and often hard, for all of us….
It was quite an experience, Father. When You sent me on that earthly mission, I never dreamed what it would be like, or how much We could do, in two short years. We did a lot.
Well, on August 26, 1950 (earth time) I woke up in a place they called a “hospital,” and I could see people in white robes standing all around. Just like it is Up Here, Father—white robes all around. One of them, a nurse, said, “She’s blue.” I didn’t know what that meant, but I did know that everything was going according to the Plan….
The doctor who “delivered” me came back. (I like that word “delivered”; it makes the doctors seem like your Agents, or Your “mail-men” Down There.) He brought three children’s doctors (called “pediatricians”)—and how they did talk! And shake their heads! I heard one of the nurses say, “She has Mongoloid eyes.” I wondered what Mongoloid meant. They seemed to think it was something awful….
When the doctor left, Mommy started to cry. She said there should be some place for babies like me. Why didn’t somebody do something about it? Maybe—and my heart missed a beat when I heard her say it—maybe it was high time the Rogers did something about starting a Foundation for handicapped babies. I loved that—not because it could help me, but because it looked like the first fruit of my mission Down There. Because I had come to them, they were already planning to help others like me!….
[W]hen I was three weeks old a doctor examined me and found that I had developed a heart murmur. He said he was afraid of that; it was just another “Mongoloid symptom.” He said he always advised parents, in situations like this, to put the baby in a “home”; they’d have to give the child up sometime, anyway, and it was easier to do it quickly, before the child became entrenched in their hearts. He said that mothers gave children like this all their attention, and were likely to neglect the other children in the family. He was a kind man, and he meant well, but what he said left Mommy so stunned she couldn’t answer.
Daddy said, “No! We’ll keep her and do all we can for her, and take our chances.” Mommy smiled then; she was glad, and she said what I had been waiting to hear her say: that You had sent me for some special reason, and they had no right to cast aside anything or anyone You had sent.
She said she was sorry for other parents who had babies like me. Father, it is hard. It was hard for Daddy and Mommy—but worth every tear and heartache it cost! I saw what was happening: already, they were beginning to appreciate Your Cross….
That’s what happened Down There. That’s how I delivered Your message, and I’m sure they got it. They learned, for one thing, that there are many mansions, or “rooms,” in Your earthly house—that there’s a room for the strong and a room for the sick, a room for the healthy and a room for the weak, a room for those born with ten talents, and a room for those with only one, a room for the rich and a room for the poor. A room for everyone, and something for them to do in that room for You. In Your house Down There are many rooms, where we study and teach and get ready to move into Your big light room Up Here.
We did pretty well in that room in my little house, Father. We taught them to see purpose in pain, and messages on the crosses they have to carry around. You know, when Daddy sings now in his big rodeo show, he has a lot of big spotlights making a cross in the center of the arena. It’s sort of a symbol of what happened to him and to Mommy: the cross has become the great big thing in the middle of their lives. Everything else in their lives now sort of moves around it, like a wheel around a hub.
They’re a lot stronger, since they got Our message. There’s a new glory inside them and on everything all around them, and they’ve made up their minds to give it to everybody they meet. The sun’s a lot brighter in Encino, since we stopped off there for a while.
And now, Father, please…could I just go out and try my wings?