Mike’s toy Mike’s favorite toy was a slinky. I took a photograph of him playing with it on one of my first visits to his Day Program. Mike is my older brother. He is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. After living in a large institution for a good portion of his life, Mike was placed […]
Group home The gesture for today’s study also comes from a visit to Mike’s group home. For those of you just joining me, my older brother is autistic, very low functioning and nonverbal. Although he was home for the first 10 years of my life, that was decades ago, and yet having him as a […]
Contact It is a real thrill to make contact. We visited our grandchildren in October of last year. William turned 7 months old while we were there. He was quite different than when we first saw him, after he was born. Then, all he did was sleep. As I understand things, infants can’t see that […]
Holding hands is one way of showing intimacy… assuming the hands belong to different people. Holding one’s own hand can have other meanings; I don’t think that intimacy is one of them, however. That could be a good blog post, but not what I had in mind for today. My older brother Mike is autistic, […]
The staff was very good about letting us know when Mike had to go the the hospital. Now and then he would fall or pass out for some reason and they would call the paramedics to take him to the emergency room. They always had an attendant go with him, since Mike doesn’t speak. For […]
I started my search through photographs I had taken of my older brother to look for emotional content that I could try to capture in my painting. My older brother is autistic, low functioning and is nonverbal. Every now and then, my whole family, younger brother D, my parents and I, used to visit Mike […]
I took the photo below at Mike’s group home. Along with my usual camera equipment, I brought a tripod and a cable release. I tried to get Mike involved in taking his own picture. However, immediate feedback in the form of a picture for him to see was not possible back then. All I had […]
It seems that on this trip I am either starting something or ending something. I’m back in Chicago area, having ended a trip to New Jersey to see my original family, including Michael, my older autistic, profoundly retarded and nonverbal brother. I wasn’t hoping for a story book ending on our day trip to see […]
Aside from seeing Mom on my side trip to New Jersey, the highlight will occur tomorrow (actually today, since I write my posts the night before). It is the day that I get to see Michael, my older brother. Mike is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. I haven’t seen him since they moved him to […]
Mom isn’t feeling too well. I feel bad for her. She told me, “You must be disappointed with your visit.” I’m not. I told her that I am happy to be here. That is the truth. I am up early. At this moment, I am reconnecting with the sense of time and space I had […]
