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Abuse in the form of a hamburger
4November 3, 2017 by whirlyjoy
This past summer we experienced one of those incidents with Aida’s supported living situation that I live in fear of …
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Business casual and beyond
4September 18, 2016 by whirlyjoy
This year Aida has started a pre-vocational program as part of her school day. It’s in the mailroom of the district’s main …
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Driving, driven, and staying the course
2September 4, 2016 by whirlyjoy
I kept waiting for someone, one of these many experts, to realize how very much in-over-my-head I was, how utterly ill-equipped and unsuited to this role of coordinating Aida’s care between a small jumble of barely overlapping spheres of expertise.
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Heaven by way of the swimming pool
1February 22, 2015 by whirlyjoy
She looked tiny under the sheets of her deathbed, this woman who for most of my life was a towering, outgoing and whirlwind presence, fully able to live up to the strong promise of the size-12 Irish peasant feet that carried her as she strode through her days.
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Phantom limbs
3November 6, 2014 by whirlyjoy
Even after I had consciously accepted that I would never hear Aida’s voice shaping anything other than low chirps and decibel-breaking shrieks, still I would dream vivid, lengthy, exhausting dreams, filled with the sound of Aida in speech.
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That autism groove
Leave a commentAugust 21, 2014 by whirlyjoy
Aida came back home last week to sleep over (“at Mom’s house”) for the first time since her move to …
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Giving Superwoman the boot
5April 6, 2014 by whirlyjoy
We have no guarantee that our kids, of any stripe, will be drawn to the same things we are, or to anything that our limited imaginations can come up with for them.
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Working to pull the pieces together
1September 20, 2013 by whirlyjoy
Baby ducks are bright yellow with chubby orange beaks, aren’t they?
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Shifting gears with a slippery clutch
6September 12, 2013 by whirlyjoy
If this blog post is a bit disjointed, that suits the subject matter. Autism definitely puts a family and everyone in it out of joint.
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Summer Camp, part 2, or A Meander Through Holland
1July 31, 2013 by whirlyjoy
Here’s what was surreal about waiting for our turn with the nurse at summer camp check-in this year: Aida was calm and composed and quiet. Oh, a few little stimmy moves here and there –
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Life in the spin cycle
whirlyjoy 