My original thought for this post was to explore my sense of skepticism about the possibility of communicating with my older brother, Michael. He is low functioning, autistic and has never spoken. This is a theme that I have explored before, and I am concerned about repeating myself. What I have tried to say is […]
I am trying to understand what it was like in the 1950s for families who had severely mentally ill members to take care of. My family was among that number. I can speak for my own experience as a younger sibling, as my older brother Michael, was very low functioning, autistic and nonverbal. He was […]
As I mentioned previously, Mom remembered that Michael, my older autistic brother was at the Bronx Developmental Center for a little while in the mid to late 1950s. She would schlep there twice a day, once to drop him off and then to pick him up. The ‘state of the art’ thinking of the medical […]
I’m so glad that I can still talk with Mom. Even though we are on different coasts, I can still ask her about things in my childhood. She and I are practically the only ones left who have first-hand knowledge about those times. Over the years I’ve bombarded her with many questions about Michael, my […]
I’ve been watching some videos that I took years ago of my brother Michael and me. Mike is my older brother, who is low functioning, autistic and nonverbal. For me, an ongoing issue is whether my memory is faithful to actual events. It is important to me, although I’m not sure why. The videos refresh […]
Current project Those of you who follow my blog know that my older brother is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. On his 40th birthday I started a long-term photography project to try to figure out my relationship with him. It may be hard to believe, but I was never sure if my brother knew who […]
(I found some analog VCR recordings of original digital recordings – it was enough to tweak my memory) There is something about a photographic pictorial record that fascinates me. Not just the family snapshots, but historical photographs as well. Each photograph is a time machine. They are so thought provoking, that I once wrote a […]
There are other people from my brother Mike‘s group home that go to his day program. Mike is one of the lowest functioning individuals there. There are others like him that do not speak, but the staff is very good with them. I visited him there many times. He loved his slinky when he went […]
I came across some notes I made about Michael during one of the assessments done by his group home staff. Mike is my older brother who is autistic, profoundly retarded and nonverbal. Everybody seems to like him, though. It is eye opening to see him from the perspective of non-family members. Outsider view This is […]
My Dad was a theoretical physicist, and was always open to answering any questions that I had. I owe my father a great debt of gratitude for his voracious appetite for life. Some of that rubbed off. I am reminded of him because I just found something interesting in one of my journals from 1993. […]
