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"There are some people out there who are just ignorant and cruel," she says. "It seems like the world used to be a nicer place."
Debra said she seems to attract people who have lost hope, and they look to her for strength and inspiration. She recounts one incident that occurred recently while she was shopping at Eckerds.
"A gentleman struck up a conversation with me, and commented on how cheerful I seemed," Debra said. "He was quiet for a few seconds, then he suddenly told me that when he had gotten up that morning he decided he was going to kill himself. He felt like life had no meaning.
"'But then I saw you'" he said. "'And I started thinking that if she can be so positive and happy then so can I.'"
This knack for inspiring hope in others has enabled Debra to travel all over the world doing speaking engagements and visiting church groups and other organizations. In 1998, while on tour with network marketing giant Dexter Yager, she met NBA star Isiah Thomas ("I came up to his kneecaps"), and motivational speakers Zig Zigler and Les Brown.
"None of this would have been possible unless I had been born a little person," she says. "I truly consider myself lucky."
We Don't Live In Dollhouses
Hank the angry, drunken (and now dead) dwarf, Willy Wonka's Oompa Loompas, dwarf tossing, the Lollipop Kids from The Wizard of Oz the seven dwarfs from Snow White -- public images of little people are almost always of a comical, fantastical, and some would say offensive, nature. It's no surprise that P.T. Barnum, "The Greatest Showman on Earth," was responsible for one of the earliest known examples of displaying a little person for the sake of public entertainment.
It was in the mid-1800s when Barnum discovered four-year-old Charles Sherwood Stratton. As a youth, Stratton was only 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. Barnum persuaded Stratton's parents to let the boy join his museum in New York City in 1842. Barnum then took him to Europe in 1844, where he entertained royalty and caused a sensation. Stratton, who adopted the moniker General Tom Thumb, eventually grew to be 40 inches tall and weighed 70 pounds. He toured with Barnum's circus until 1881. He died two years later. This is where the term "circus midget" originated, and greatly contributed to the word "midget" being associated with exploitation. It's a word that has fallen into disfavor among little people.
Technically, "midget" is a term used to describe a little person who is of proportionate stature. However, most little people consider the term offensive, and prefer such terms as dwarf or a person of short stature. "Dwarf" is actually an abridged form of the word "dwarfism," a medical term used to describe a genetic condition resulting in short stature.
People with dwarfism have abnormal body proportions. While the torso and body organs are all relatively normal size, the arms, legs, fingers and toes are disproportionately short. The facial features include a large head with a prominent forehead. The midface is often small with a flat nasal bridge and narrow nasal passages. As someone with dwarfism ages, the legs usually assume a bow-legged appearance known as varus. Dwarfism occurs as the result of an underdeveloped skeleton. The growth of the bony skeleton depends on the formation of cartilage. Dwarfism results when the cartilage cells do not grow and divide properly, usually because of a cellular defect or interference. Chromosome-related dwarfism results when all the cells of the body are defective. If a cell has an extra chromosome or is missing part of a chromosome, growth may be affected.
A person with a deficiency of any of the major growth-promoting hormones is usually normally proportioned but much shorter than other members of his or her family. Such people appear much younger than their actual age and grow at a slower rate than normal. They reach their final height and may become sexually mature in their mid-20s. Proportionate dwarfism can be treated medically.
While it varies from condition to condition, the overwhelming majority of little people enjoy normal intelligence, normal life spans, and reasonably good health. In fact, people with dwarfism achieve the same range of career paths as average-size persons, including doctors, lawyers, ministers, teachers, welders, and artists. However, orthopedic and respiratory complications are not unusual in people with disproportionate dwarfism, and sometimes surgery is required.
By far the most common form of short-limbed dwarfism is called achondroplasia. It occurs in approximately 1 in 40,000 births. Jim and Pam Gildersleeve have this genetic condition. The Gildersleeves live in a nice, airy house in Highland Creek. They settled there a few years ago after getting married. The two met in 1983 in Baton Rouge, LA when Jim, fresh out of college, started working at a bank across the street from a clothing store owned by Pam's family.