June 14, 2007

Attorney John Stocking arrives at the law firm on Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee that bears his name about 10 each morning. He starts the day a little late because on his way in from Hartland, he drops off his 43-year-old son John for work at the Waukesha Training Center.

John is a miracle and a product of love. In September of 1963, Stocking, at the age of 23, was to begin law school at UW-Madison. In May, he and his 22-year-old wife celebrated the birth of a baby boy who, coincidentally, had Down’s syndrome.

"The only advice we got from everyone was to ‘put John away and get on with our lives.’ We were young, in love and John was otherwise perfectly healthy, so we weren’t about to ‘put him away.’ How times have changed for the better."

Encouraging parents of children with handicaps to bring them all home has become a lifelong mission for him, and he has made it a point to help them with his own expertise — the law.

Being the good graduate from Yale University, after John’s birth he first attempted to research the genetic disease. "In 1963, I found one book at the UW-Milwaukee library and I still remember the title: ‘Mystery Disease’ by Clemens Benda."

Since then the Stockings have learned a great deal about it and gone on to have five more perfectly healthy children. "A Down’s syndrome person has 47 chromosomes as opposed to the normal 46. The result is they can have problems mentally, they usually develop to about the level of a 7-year-old, and problems physically, particularly a heart valve defect."

John is typical of what parents can expect from a Down’s syndrome child. Stocking says such people are "very loving, predictable, and need both structure and pattern in their lives. "Our son will not miss the time to walk and feed our dog."

Stocking is an expert in advising worried parents on how to care financially for their children with handicaps. "I can’t teach them how to love a child, but I can help relieve the worry in structuring wills and trusts for the inevitable time when they won’t be around to care for the child who is now an adult with needs."