{image is a photo of Brooke on Halloween in 2004, at three, dressed as a clown. I can’t even handle the cuteness.} Let’s talk blue pumpkins, my friends. Recently, a mom of an autistic toddler posted a plea: “My son is 3 years old and has autism,” she wrote. “He is nonverbal. Last year houses … Continue reading
Tagged with autism …
#StopTheShock
I wrote the following in January of 2015. Even then, the battle was far from new. Autistic people and those who love them have been fighting to end this desperately inhumane form of torture for YEARS. Please, please get involved. At the end of the post, you will find quick, concrete ways to make your … Continue reading
a common goal
When Katie coughs, Brooke shrieks. It’s a visceral, reflexive, heartbreaking response. It looks, for all intents and purposes, like a reaction to a physical attack. It’s been a challenge for years. So long now, in fact, that I don’t remember a time when it wasn’t a part of our lives – the elephant in the … Continue reading
the perfect addendum
In September of 2014, I wrote the following post. It was hard to write then and it’s hard to share now. Not because I don’t believe it to be true – I do, fervently – but because I worry that I’m not the one who should be saying it. But I am. Because this time … Continue reading
dear jennifer
{image is a giraffe in a party hat with text reading, “Giraffe Party.” It is the profile picture for my friend, Jennifer’s public Facebook page. Click on it. Go ahead, it won’t bite.} Dear Jennifer, There’s been something that I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while now. The words have played again and … Continue reading
phone home, part two
{image is a photo of Brooke on Christmas morning, moments after opening her new phone, using it to take pictures of her Kai-LAN figurines.} In August of 2014, I wrote a post responding some comments that I’d received on Facebook when I’d referred to the fact that we’d taken Katie’s phone away for three weeks. … Continue reading
and never is a load of crap
When we got home from Brooke’s chorus concert last night, I posted the following on Diary’s Facebook page: Brooke’s friend, Becky, who is not in the choir, came to the school tonight to see Brooke sing. Becky, like Brooke, is autistic. Sitting through an hour-and-a-half-long band and chorus concert is not an easy feat. But she … Continue reading
on function
Earlier this week, I posted the following on Facebook. I talk a lot here about why assigning functioning labels to human beings is pretty much crap. I talk about the fact that labeling a human ‘high functioning’ dismisses their very real challenges while calling another ‘low functioning’ dismisses their very real abilities – often along … Continue reading
a new friend
{image is a photo of Brooke, taken by Katie last weekend. She is squatting in the sand and looking back over her shoulder smiling.} Saturday … Brooke and I are at the mall. It’s not going well. In fact, it’s going pretty damned not well. She asks to go into the toy store. I know … Continue reading
the invitation
{image is a photo of Brooke at Surfside Beach on Nantucket, dancing with the sea.} For years, I lamented the moments in which my girl, in the word I’d have used, “disconnected.” (I hate this next sentence, but the truth of it cannot be denied.) When my girl, as I was so sure she did, … Continue reading
