Hi there, I am very much like your daughter. I'm 36 now, I am visually impaired and I have some other special needs due to a congenital rubella syndrome. I think my mother could've written your exact post, and I know she has mixed feelings about it, even now. On the one hand, she can't be more proud of what I do. I set up my own very small organization when I Was 23 years old and I went to live in Vietnam. I was very young for my age then, and we had been having massive arguments up until that time because she was very overprotective. I was 23, but I was like 12… I can't imagine what she went through those first couple of years, and plus, she had a hard time from family dancing etc.
I just won an award last month in New Delhi for my work. My mother was able to be with me, and she was even able to bring me up on the stage. She was my assistant in India… I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. I really wanted her to be part of my success too. She hasn't had an easy life . She was getting a lot of compliments from people to about what a great mother she was. And I'm so glad people were telling her this. When I left home, everybody was accusing her of being a bad mother, and saying how could she let me go… But had she not, I wouldn't be in the position that I am today.
Because of my other needs, she does still support me in the ways that she can, sometimes she can be a bit overbearing… But I think sometimes she feels the same way you do. It's very hard to let go from so far away. She doesn't get to see me very often. We see each other on average once every two years.
Just please know from another daughter with a disability, that you did the best you could, and I am so thankful that my mother didn't stop me. I have learned so much over these years, and become very creative and been able to handle things that I never thought I could or that I would. There are many people with disabilities, much less than mine, who can't do the things that I do.