The 31-year-old
When she discovered she was pregnant last December,
she felt fear and joy. She quickly embraced the opportunity to raise a
child, feeling she had the money and family support to make up for her
paralysis.
David Trais, her ex-boyfriend and the 49-year-old
father of their now 5-month-old son, disagreed that she was up to the
challenge.
In September, Trais sued O’Neill for full custody,
charging that his former girlfriend is “not a fit and proper person” to
care for their son,
In court documents, Trais said O’Neill’s disability
“greatly limits her ability to care for the minor, or even wake up if
the minor is distressed.”
O’Neill counters that she always has another
able-bodied adult on hand for Aidan — be it her full-time caretaker,
live-in brother or her mother. Even before she gave birth to Aidan,
O’Neill said, she never went more than a few hours by herself.
The custody case, expected back before Cook County Judge
“No judge wants to be the judge who sends a child home when the child gets hurt,” said Callow, of the
Callow said the bias against disabled parents is
such that judges tend to grant custody to an able-bodied partner “even
if they have a history that might usually be a heavy mark against them
— not having been in the child’s life, a history of violence, et
cetera.”
Trais declined to comment to the
But
“Certainly, I sympathize with the mom, but assuming
both parties are equal (in other respects), isn’t the child obviously
better off with the father?”
LeVine, who has specialized in divorce and custody
cases for the last 40 years, pointed out that O’Neill would likely not
be able to teach her son to write, paint or play ball. “What’s the
effect on the child — feeling sorry for the mother and becoming the
parent?”
On a recent morning, O’Neill’s caretaker,
When his bottle fell from his mouth, or tipped the wrong way, Davidiuk stepped in to reposition it.
The two worked in tandem, with Davidiuk heading up
duties that require manual dexterity — like changing diapers — and
O’Neill focused more on emotional engagement. When Aidan burst into
tears, for example, O’Neill was the one to sooth him with a soft
rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle,
In addition to Davidiuk, O’Neill’s brother, an
ex-Marine, lives in an apartment attached to her home. O’Neill’s mother
helps on weekends and the family keeps Pele, a yellow lab service dog,
who can open doors, turn on lights and pick up stuffed animals.
Her immaculate, one-story home is filled with photos
of Aidan. Her son’s room, painted sherbet green and decorated with
cheerful zoo animals, has a specially modified changing table and crib
that allows for O’Neill’s wheelchair.
In an overflowing folder marked “Mommy vs. Daddy,”
O’Neill keeps a copy of legal filings, tax records and proof of her
income, including statements that reflect she receives
a year in veteran’s benefits that pay for her care. She also owns a
general contracting company targeting federal government contracts
earmarked for businesses owned by disabled veterans. O’Neill said the
company, a two-year-old startup, has not yet generated a profit.
How the case will play out is impossible to predict,
say legal experts, who point out that O’Neill’s disability, in and of
itself, cannot be the determining factor.
“You cannot categorically discriminate against people because of their disabilities,” said
referring to one of the central tenets of the Americans with
Disabilities Act. “You can consider the ways in which someone’s
circumstances might interfere with a person’s ability to have the
child’s needs met.”
said such custody fights often come down to a judge determining “the
best interests of the child — a very nebulous standard that the courts
use.”
Shapo pointed to a 1979 landmark case in which the
reversed lower court rulings against a paralyzed father who had been
fighting to retain custody of his two children. In its opinion, the
court found that the “essence of parenting is not to be found in the
harried rounds of daily carpooling” but rather “in the ethical,
emotional and intellectual guidance the parent gives the child
throughout his formative years.”
As is common in child custody battles, the plaintiff did not limit his legal complaint to one concern.
Trais, a self-employed
attorney, also charged in legal documents that O’Neill suffers from
depression and that she smokes cigarettes and drinks alcohol in front
of the infant.
O’Neill said she sees a therapist once a week and
has been treated for anxiety, depression and sleep apnea. She denied
Trais’ claim she smokes or drinks — though both are legal practices.
“Who is lighting my cigarettes and pouring my drinks?” she quipped.
Despite the acrimonious nature of their current
relationship, O’Neill said she is committed to keeping Trais in their
son’s life. She said she was devastated when she learned Trais had
deemed her “unfit” in court papers and said she believes it was
motivated by her decision to break up with him shortly after Aidan’s
birth.
Trais currently has visitation rights from
To be sure, O’Neill is not the first mother to parent from a wheelchair.
community center providing advocacy and direct service for people with
disabilities, was 23 when she suffered a spinal injury in a 1977 diving
accident that left her paralyzed. She gave birth and raised two
children when she was in her 30s.
“I won’t kid you, it’s harder to be a mom with a
disability,” Bristo said. She said both she and her kids learned to
adapt. As her children got older, and starting to walk, verbal cues
became increasingly important.
“You develop different voices” for warning children,
since physical intervention isn’t an option, she said. “My kids knew
that ‘danger voice.’ They would stop in their trails when they heard
that voice.
“My kids did fine.”
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
