LOOKING BACK : The People...

Tiffany Callo’s remarkable year peaked Dec. 8.

That day Callo, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, saw her son Jesse for the first time in more than a year. In their few hours together, Callo gave the youngster, who turns 5 on Jan. 15, an early Christmas/birthday present--a toy ambulance that broadcasts conversations of paramedics.

The reunion was bittersweet, though. Jesse remembered her but “he seemed really detached,” Callo, 25, says of the visit that she arranged through Jesse’s adoptive parents.

The gulf between mother and child poignantly sums up Callo’s losing battle for her two sons (View, July 26). They were taken from her shortly after each was born--without disabilities--in 1987 and 1988. Social workers in San Jose contended that Callo’s cerebral palsy prevented her from providing adequate care for David and Jesse. For a time, Callo waged a heart-wrenching court fight against the removals. But she later dropped her challenge.

Still, Callo’s odyssey from divorced welfare mother to reproductive-rights crusader is widely regarded as a milestone in the disability rights movement.

That explains why Callo’s groundbreaking custody fight inspired a book, “A Mother’s Touch: the Tiffany Callo Story.” Its publication last summer gave Callo a brief period in the limelight. She toured several cities and spoke publicly in support of a disabled couple threatened with having their child removed.

Now, Callo’s life has returned to a routine, she says. She looks forward to celebrating the first anniversary of her marriage to Teddy Brazil in January. And she notes that she has gone on a diet. “I can already tell I’ve lost some weight,” she says.

The world has not heard the last of her, she adds. A TV movie is in the works.