|
|
|
Margaret Domnick
Hatteberg's People
Reporter: Larry Hatteberg
 |
April 16, 2006--Margaret Domnick is a Harper, Kansas woman whose son has a rare metabolic disorder of the liver. She became concerned when she saw not only her child, but other children struggle with health issues that made them feel different. |
| So she decided to write a book to make children understand that everybody has something that makes them different…and that being different is OK. |
“Being different is just part of life.”
When you open Margaret Domnick’s book “Everybody Has Something”, these are the first two pages.
“Hi, I’m Jack.
And guess what? I have something.
My mom says that everybody has something. |
 |
“We’ve always lived in a really small house and all of a sudden we found this one and it has a little acreage, and on a typical Summer day we might have everybody on the swings seeing who can get the highest, we might have them on the trampolines, we’ve got
neighbor kids here all the time….it’s just loud and wonderful.”
|
Margaret Domnick’s family is the picture of normalcy. But as her book said….Everybody has something. 9-year-old Jack, playing catch with his father Mike, has a disease called
PK, a rare liver disorder. Jack has to be monitored closely and has a restricted diet.
“A very happy kid.” |
 |
One day Margaret found that she couldn’t let Jack stay over at a friend’s house because of his restricted menu. That led to the inspiration for the book.
“So later that evening the kids had all taken showers and getting ready for bed and he was voicing his displeasure of my decision and before I had a chance to respond to him, Jessica jumped in and she said I know how you feel Jack, today I had a
substitute teacher ask me if I had Chicken Pox, because she had some breakouts on her face.
Then Madalyn chimed right in with yeah, and I’ve got a bad tummy ache. She looked right and me and said why do I have tummy aches and no one else does? It just happened, I said look guys, everybody has something.”
|
 |
Even six year old Max, the youngest in the family would sometimes scratch his leg till it bled. So everyone in Margaret’s family had something.
“I feel good because now I know everybody else has something and I know I am not the only one.” |
At work, Margaret is a speech pathologist in the Norwich and Harper school systems. It is the special nature of her work that lets her see the differences in children one on one.
|
Her book writing career began when she saw her four children and others struggle with issues that made them feel different.
Margaret Domnick, making a difference one child at a time.
“I was just being a mom, trying to teach her kids something that I felt needed to be done.” |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
