[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 7678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     IN RECOGNITION OF RACHEL SIMON

 Mr. CARPER. Mr. President. I rise today in recognition of 
Rachel Simon and her extraordinary book, Riding the Bus with my Sister. 
The book chronicles the time her developmentally disabled sister Beth 
spends riding the bus. It brings to light the world of adults with 
developmental disabilities, finds unlikely heroes in everyday life, and 
discovers unrealized inner strength.
  Rachel Simon was born in 1959 in Newark, NJ, the second of four 
children. Her family moved around New Jersey and Pennsylvania several 
times when she was a child, and Rachel, who was always a very social, 
creative person, wrote mountains of letters to keep up with all her 
distant friends. She also wrote short stories, novels, and plays, which 
she enjoyed sharing with others.
  Rachel graduated from Solebury School, a boarding school in New Hope, 
PA, in 1977. She then went on to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. 
During her years in college, she discovered the secrets of discipline 
and time management. She was also captivated by her courses in 
anthropology and graduated in 1981.
  After college, Rachel moved to Philadelphia, where she spent the next 
5 years at a variety of jobs, including paralegal, administrative 
assistant, and research supervisor for a television study. At 26, she 
entered a graduate program in creative writing.
  In the next several years, Rachel wrote the story collection Little 
Nightmares, Little Dreams and the novel The Magic Touch. From her house 
in Abington, PA, she began teaching private classes in creative 
writing. In 1995, Rachel took a job running events at the Barnes & 
Noble in Princeton, NJ, and eventually moving to that area.
  Around that time, Rachel also began writing commentary for the 
Philadelphia Inquirer and teaching at Bryn Mawr College, in addition to 
continuing with her private classes. In 1997, she published The 
Writer's Survival Guide and then worked on some long pieces of fiction.
  As readers of Riding the Bus with my Sister know, Rachel's life 
changed when she wrote an article about her sister Beth's unusual 
lifestyle of riding the buses in the city where she lives. Over the 
course of riding with Beth for the next year, Rachel came to leave most 
of her jobs behind, found her way back to her sister, and rediscovered 
her friendships.
  In May 2005, Riding the Bus with my Sister will be televised as a 
Hallmark Hall of Fame movie on CBS. Rosie O'Donnell is starring as 
Beth, Andie MacDowell is starring as Rachel, and Anjelica Huston is 
directing.
  Both Rachel and her sister Beth are amazing women, and I rise today 
to honor them.

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