When I met my husband in 1995, I thought he and I had a lot in common. We were both crazy computer people, in an age still well before personal computers and internet access were common place. We both were independent, working hard at our careers and had a lot of ambition at the starting [...]
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It should have been more momentous. Sitting there, in a classroom last week, listening to my autistic son’s teacher tell me that he was doing well in all his subjects was the stuff of my dreams a few years ago. A reality I couldn’t imagine, but one I hoped to attain in the far away [...]
Filed under: 2010s, autism, college, confidence, developmental delays, early intervention, elementary school, faith, fear, insecurity, son, special education, teachers, therapy | 1 Comment »
No one believed the forecast. When our weather forecasters started talking about snow in the forecast last Thursday, those of us in SW CT were incredulous. Snow is virtually unheard of in October here. Sure, I grew up in Michigan; I remember several Halloweeens spent with winter coats and flakes in the air. Nothing significant, [...]
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My great aunt is sick. Well, it’s more than that, I suppose. My great aunt is more than sick. My great aunt is dying. Right now. My great aunt Katie is my mother’s aunt, her favorite aunt, and we were very close to her when my mother was alive. Most of my happiest childhood memories [...]
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Michael lost it the other night. It had been a good day for him, in fact a great start to the school year so far. Last year, he stumbled so badly at the beginning of the school year, in terms of academics and behavior, that I actually phoned his teacher on Friday in tears wondering [...]
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We made it through the hurricane, though it was an interesting time for us. The winds started around midnight and by three in the morning, they were howling and rain was falling in sheets and sideways from the sky. I finally got out of the bed at five thirty, tired of listening to it and [...]
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So, it’s hurricane time where I live. My daughter asked if I had ever been through a hurricane before, and the answer is a solid “no”. I grew up in Michigan, the land of snow and construction. It gets cold there, but you don’t get hurricanes. I’ve always been fascinated by them, riveted by weather [...]
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“Can I come over?” I asked my girlfriend Fran, staring blankly at the message on my computer screen. It was three months after Tom had started treatment. We’d seen him three times, the last time just two weeks ago. He’d seemed better, less dependent on his oxygen machine and able to actually greet us at [...]
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“I’m tired,” Tom said sheepishly, sitting down as the crowd at the local senior center dwindled. My girlfriends and I had been invited by our first selectman to join him for a campaign appearance at the town senior center; this was a tough crowd for anyone running for our local board of education. Since we [...]
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We stood around the kitchen island, toasting our victory in this year’s budget battle. It had been hard fought. We’d had two elections where the votes came within several hundred votes, but we still had been unable to convince voters that a small tax increase was better than the cuts that were inevitable if the [...]
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