Like Normal People

Roger Drake Meyers and Virginia Rae Hensler were married in California in June 1977, against the advice and perhaps the wishes of many people. Both are mildly developmentally disabled, and at the time, such marriages were actually illegal in some states. However, Roger and Virginia had convinced their families of their sincere desire to marry, and so they had blessings on both sides. Both were employed and contributing members of their community at the time they married -- Virginia worked in a hotel and Roger in a restaurant. Roger's brother Robert, a noted journalist, wrote their story, calling attention to many of the horrific abuses that had been commonplace in the treatment of the mentally retarded over the course of the twentieth century. Before writing this review, I googled Roger's and Virginia's names and was pleased to find a link to this article from the PhillyBurbs website, June 1, 2005:(...) Roger and Virginia are still married, still together, and still happy -- while proving the 'conventional wisdom' regarding the advisability of marriage for people like them, not so wise after all.