darling amy, I went to New Jersey, to the retarded school. Some of the ladies are my age and look like they are 12. I will show you in the pictures. Others look older than they are. Some of them are perfectly rational, but simple and tend to repeat things. One lady said : “Oh God,” every time she saw me. “You’re cute,” she’d say. “You’re too much.” … She could say more but those are the things she kept wanting to say over and over. And many of them just love to hug. Some of them are so small that their shoulder would fit right under my arm and I would pat them and their head would fall on my chest. They are the strangest combination of grownup and child I have ever seen… One lady kept saying over and over “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” After a while one of the staff said “That’s all right but don’t do it again” and she quieted down… I think you’d like them. Some of them are perturbed and miserable. One of them says over and over very earnestly, “Was I the only one born?”
Diane Arbus (Elisabeth Sussman & Doon Arbus, Diane Arbus. A chronology)
