Tuesday, July 21, 2009

New Friend for Penny

On a brighter side, I think Penny met her new best friend. Up until now, Penny has met a lot of boy children with Down syndrome, and we were on the look out for a girl that is local to hang with. Well, we went and visited a family that lives about 15 minutes away. If the mom sends me her pix (again my camera was not operable) and her permission to post I will throw some pictures up soon. I know that this is a match made in heaven so to speak because her name is Helen. Both Penelope and Helen are strong Greek names that are rich in Greek mythology. In fact, the name Helen made it on my short list for that reason, but Penelope won out in the end.

Penelope was the wife of King Odysseus of Ithaca. Odysseus was pretty much forced to help the king of Sparta when his wife, Helen of Sparta was "kidnapped" by the prince of Troy. Thus began the Trojan war, ten year battle over a woman. Helen's beauty was unmatched and she was said to have had "the face that launched a thousand ships" because of all the countries involved in this fight. All the time that Odysseus was absent from home, twenty years in fact, Penelope never once took on another lover. She had many suitors since there was an empty thrown, but she turned down each one of them because Penelope believed her husband was to return. The name Penelope has two meanings; the first is "always faithful" but the name also has a more literal translation, "one who weaves." This is because it was said that during the time Penelope waited for the return of her husband, she was constantly weaving a garment to keep herself too busy for the suitors.

No comments: