SHARONVILLE, Ohio — Mathew Cook gives me a thumbs up. He’s standing outside the Kroger where he bags groceries and collects shopping carts.
“Have fun,” Cook said.
And he does, all the time. Cook is showing me his safety vest when he sees his mom. She’s here to pick him up.
“This is my favorite mom,” Cook said.
While they walk to the car, they hold hands. Mary Ramirez Cook asks her son if he saw anyone he knew today. He says he did.
“You,” Cook said.
They call it 'happy hour.' Go inside a dance class for people with disabilities in the video below:
Before she gave birth to Mathew, Ramirez Cook didn’t know anything about Down syndrome. That’s part of the reason his name only has one “t.”
She misspelled it at the hospital.
“It was very frightening that I had this child that wasn’t, quote, perfect,” Ramirez Cook said. “Then I find out he’s probably my most perfect child.”
Mathew has fun most everywhere he goes, but what he really loves is dancing. That’s because Ramirez Cook danced all her life. She even taught classes when she was pregnant with Mathew.
In the home movies she shows me, Mathew dances on the counter in their kitchen. In another one, he drives a bike into a pile of leaves in their backyard. In a more recent one, he wiggles his hips like Elvis Presley. And yes, he's wearing the costume.
Mathew watches with her on their computer. His hands start to move. Then, his feet do the same. He tells me this is his favorite video.
“A lot of my students were never blessed to be around anyone with Down syndrome before,” Ramirez Cook said.
That’s when she realized she needed to do something more. At A-Marika Dance Company, her studio, Ramirez Cook started a weekly ballroom class specifically for people with disabilities.
The class began with six people. Now, it has 62.
“I call it happy hour,” Ramirez Cook said. “Because it's so happy. You just have to experience it.”
In the class, she teaches foxtrot, swing and waltz. The dancers practice for competitions and exhibitions, but this class is about more than teaching dance steps. In fact, that might be the least important part.
“You wish one thing for your child, and that’s self-confidence. I have five children, and I think Mathew took all of it,” Ramirez Cook said, before laughing. “He just makes everyone come together.”
As she starts the class, she smiles and winks. Because Mathew now helps teach it with her.
