Images of individuals with Down syndrome from all 50 states and 11 countries will be highlighted next month in a special presentation on the jumbo screens in New York City's famed Times Square — and a Cincinnati woman will be among them.
Cathy Gruber's smiling face is among the roughly 500 images selected from more than 2,600 entries for the hour-long tribute compiled by the National Down Syndrome Society.
Gruber died in January at the age of 63.
Molly O'Toole, Gruber's niece, describes her aunt as a beautiful, strong, and smart woman who happened to have Down syndrome.
"She lived a beautiful, rich life, and she was a pioneer in a lot of different ways. She was born in 1961 before there was early intervention in schools, and before there were a whole lot of resources for parents who had children with Down syndrome," O'Toole says. "And because of that, my grandparents and my Aunt Cathy ended up being pioneers throughout almost every stage of her life."
A long life
Gruber was born at a time when the life expectancy for someone with Down syndrome was much lower than today. She was the youngest of seven children, and one of the first students to be mainstreamed into Cincinnati schools, according to her obituary. She attended Mercy Montessori and graduated from Madeira High School. O'Toole says Gruber loved sports and was a lifelong fan of the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals.
"When she turned 60, the Reds honored her at the ball park. She was on the Jumbotron and she got one of the game balls. It was just, I think, the thrill of her life," O'Toole remembers. "She also loved music. She sang in the church choir at Nativity parish for years."
Gruber was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2020 and moved in with her niece at the onset of the COVID pandemic after having lived independently for many years. Despite the diagnosis, music remained an important part of her life.
"She had a player piano growing up. And to her dying day, she could remember all of those player piano songs that she used to pedal on the piano down in my grandparents' basement," says O'Toole.
The 'heart' of the family
Gruber's family is excited the world will get to see the woman they knew so well and loved. O'Toole says Gruber lit up every room and had friends everywhere she went.
"You couldn't go anywhere with her in the city without meeting somebody that she had known or who remembered her from decades ago. It was amazing, and she was the heart of our family. I can't tell you how happy she would be to be a superstar — just thinking of her up there in the bright lights of Times Square, [it] makes our hearts soar."
Secondly — and in the larger scheme of things — O'Toole says it's important that someone Gruber's age is included among the images that will be displayed so prominently.
"When she was born in 1961 there weren't a lot of resources for her, and there wasn't representation either, and this happened at every stage of her life," says O'Toole. "What I think is really important is to have a picture up there of somebody with Down syndrome who's in their 60s. That was never shown before because until Cathy's generation, people like Cathy weren't lucky enough to see this age, and she was.
"I think it's really important to have that representation up there and to show the world that her life was valued; her life was valuable; and her contributions to Cincinnati and to our community were also valuable. Her old age was a joy. It wasn't a tragedy."
The annual National Down Syndrome Society Times Square Video Presentation is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The video presentation will be livestreamed from Times Square on the .
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