Is accurate memory important? It seems important to me, probably for reasons related to circumstances of my childhood. I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s with a severely impaired older brother. He is autistic, very low functioning and has never spoken. I’ve written several posts dedicated to memory itself (Memory, Seeds of Memory, I […]
My brother Michael is autistic, low functioning and has never spoken. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, my project was to use photography to help me discover who my brother was and how I could relate to him. I wrote the following in the early 1990s about my recollections of Michael from childhood. Sometimes […]
A heartwarming story, where happy endings are not the norm.
Those of you who have been following my blog know that I have an autistic older brother. Mike is nonverbal and low functioning. There weren’t many kids like Michael in my home town. After my mother and father, with other parents, started a school for children who were not able to function in the school […]
This post was originally written while I was becoming fully engaged in getting to know my older brother, who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. It reveals my mindset at that time. It is a bit of a journal entry, and an insight into my artistic process. I call it my ‘artistic process’ because my […]
Yesterday, my post was about Willowbrook, the large mental institution on Staten Island, New York, where my older brother was for about 15 years. Michael is autistic, very low functioning and has never spoken. Willowbrook was broken up by court order and the six thousand or so residents were relocated. This took many years to […]
My brother, Michael is autistic, very low functioning and has never spoken. He is about 3 years older than me. I am 4 years older than my younger brother. Our family lived together until Mike was 13 years old. From the time Mike was born, he never progressed. He couldn’t take care of himself and […]
An answer In my blog the other day, I wondered whether siblings of handicapped brothers or sisters would necessarily end up being acquisitive, keeping memorabilia and other clutter. I got a wonderful comment from Kristin, who also has a handicapped sib and no problem at all with de-cluttering, or ‘cleansing’ as she so aptly put […]
