It might mean you stay home and receive no services . . . One of the Coffelt few, this active, animated woman has such a busy schedule that her BI case manager, Rita Gatens, has to plan far in advance just to see her. A resident of institutional settings since she was a young girl, Weston says getting out of SDC is the best thing she's ever done. I wouldn't trade this for nothing. Of course, with so many more people helping out in her life, there's the possibility of losing someone.
Life becomes unpredictable.
But the flipside is that it's a life of her own making. Nancy Gardner, director of the North Bay Regional Center, began work with the developmentally disabled in the mid-'70s. It wasn't until '75 that people with disabilities had a right to a public education. That amazes me. Things have changed a lot since then.