Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Boy in the Store

As I was shopping in our local grocery store last night (about 30 minutes before it closes -- my favorite time because there are few other shoppers!), the sales clerk, Kim, and a young woman were talking about the shopper's young son. The boy was standing with his head against one of the walls and he was babbling in an incoherent manner.

"Is he okay?" Kim asked. A bit embarrassed, the young woman replied, "We recently learned that he's autistic. It's a particular kind: Asperger's Syndrome." The woman briefly told Kim how much of a challenge it was to parent the boy. Sounding almost exasperated, she said, "I sometimes fear he will never make it to adulthood."

I walked up to the two of them and asked if I could interrupt. I looked in the general direction of the young woman and said, "I have Asperger's." I explained that I was confident her little boy would see adulthood, but it might be a bit of a struggle to get there! She asked if I experienced such struggles and I replied, "Oh, you better believe it!"

I mentioned that times are different now and there is a lot of help for parents of children with all different kinds of autism. Back when I was a kid, everyone knew there was something decidedly odd and different about me, but no one knew precisely what it was. My parents didn't receive much of any help from educators and mental health professionals, so they did the best they could.

She thanked me for interrupting their conversation. I can only hope that the brief comments from the odd looking man in the striped overalls and bright shoes put her mind a bit more at ease.

2 comments:

  1. I definitely think it did! Now she has someone to keep in mind as a vision of the future when her son (and the rest of the family) is having a really bad day.

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  2. Unless she's a fashion maven who dresses her kid in Baby Gap. (Just a joke.)

    ReplyDelete

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