She never owned a house or drove a car, wrote a book or made a film, passed an exam or won an Oscar. Even most Christians have never heard of her. Yet the lives of thousands have been touched by hers and hundreds have become Christians because Rachel Potter lived.
Rachel was born on August 13 1963. It was quite a day for her parents, David and Madeleine — first a baby and then, on the same day, a call to the pastorate of an East London church. Their course in life seemed clear, but it did not turn out as they expected. Soon after, their GP told them that their daughter had Down’s Syndrome.
Negative attitudes
In the 1960s and 1970s, learning disability — or ‘mental handicap’ as it was then called — was still under the shadow of negative attitudes and practices. While Rachel was still only a few months old, her mother was advised by the Medical Officer of Health to ‘put her in a home and forget you ever had her’. The ‘home’ would have been a large, isolated institution where hundreds of people with learning disabilities were ‘warehoused’, virtually imprisoned for life. Not that the Potters were aware of this or of much else relating to Rachel’s condition; they marvelled at the precious life entrusted to them.
