Friday, 04 September 2009

• The "Typical" Son, Not Hardly!!

  I received an e-mail from my older boy Brian's teacher in his sophomore English class. She requested that the parents provide her with a note or e-mail telling her about their child as she would only know of them what she saw in the few moments during class. It was a completely voluntary assignment and there is a bit of trepidation at turning in a writing assignment to an English teacher but as you know, you don't have to ask me twice to talk about my boys...
  
  Dear Ms H,
  
  Thank you for inspiring me and giving me the opportunity to tell you about my son Brian.
  
  He is 15 years old, he is extremely bright and a very good student. He enjoys Martial Arts for physical activity and computer gaming for his down time. He loves singing and enjoys being in the choir at his school. He enjoys carbohydrates and maple syrup and will declare that he is a vegetarian for social consciousness but I believe that he just doesn't want to try anything that would not taste good with syrup. 
  
  He can be a "wise" guy but I mean that in a good way. He carries in him a wisdom that I honestly have to say is God inspired because looking at my husband and myself there is no DNA responsible for this. He possesses such caring and empathy to the point where he has described physical pain at seeing another person in distress. He has an awesome sense of humor and can be a little goofy at times but that is because he takes great pleasure in bringing a smile or laugh to someone else' lips. He loves God, his family and friends.
  
  So you might be thinking, well this sounds like a typical kid with a pretty normal life but you would be wrong.
  
  Brian has grown up in a house with therapists, social workers and psychologist coming in and out. He has been awakened in the middle of the night by screams, cries, banging on the walls and even the sound of glass breaking on occasion. He has had many of his things broken in a fit of rage and has been a target of that rage himself. Why would a child ever live this way? Brian has a younger brother named Daniel and Daniel has autism.
  
  Although it can be hard to develop a healthy relationship with someone you can not have a conversation with, Brian does his best to engage and be there for his little brother. In a crowded venue or in a busy parking lot Brian will instinctively grab his little brother's hand and guide him to safety. He will run up and down the hallway with Daniel to help him relieve some of his anxiety when he is stressed. He let's his brother use his CD player and sit on his bed knowing quite possibly there will be cracker crumbs to clear away before bedtime. We can clearly see that even though Daniel does not say so, he appreciates and loves his big brother very much.
  
  A child with autism may be referred to as "affected", "on the spectrum", or "autistic" and their normal siblings or peers may be called "typical" but I, in my totally biased position as his mother would say "not hardly."
  
  I feel so blessed and privileged to be the mother of two such unique and wonderful children. I again thank you for inspiring me to finally write something down about my lovely Brian.
  
  Most Sincerely,
  Nancy

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