As promised, an essay written circa 1996 about my older brother and me: I am an artist and my brother is an autist: Only one letter difference; two letters apart in the alphabet. If you speak with a New York accent, we are the same. When I was born, my big brother Michael was […]
Now that I have my journals at my disposal, I can fill in some details about Mike and his social environment. As much as I am itching to share specific holiday experiences, particularly, Halloween, I am going to wait until the appropriate time of year for that. I met many of Michael’s housemates and schoolmates […]
May, 1994 Michael is in the hospital. He collapsed when he got home from the day program. I saw him earlier that day and he looked really terrible. He was pale. His lips looked like they were made of wax. The said he didn’t look too bad in the morning. They would have kept him […]
When I found my journals and other writings, I promised that I would try to see how my memories of today track with what I wrote at the time (more than 20 years ago). I wrote the following after my first visit to Mike at his day school. My recollections prior to finding this story […]
I used rolls of 35mm film when I took photographs. Instead of printing each negative, which could be expensive, the developed film was cut into strips and laid out in contact with photographic paper in the dark room. A sheet of glass was placed on top to flatten them out, and they were all exposed at one […]
Thank You Before I begin today’s blog, I would like to thank everyone who gave me encouragement about yesterday’s blog, which touched on the angry feelings I had growing up. I understand that these feelings are legitimate, but I did not know if I stepped over the line to disrespect. So, thank you for the […]
Everyone needs a nap now and then. This is a rare moment when my brother Michael decided to conk out. Usually I was the one who felt like going to sleep when I visited him at his group home. I could become animated though when I was able to interact with one of Mike’s housemates. […]
Those of you who have interacted with an autistic person surely understand frustration. Most of my experience is with my low-functioning, nonverbal, autistic brother. However, the fact that he is so much different than other people has probably saved me from even more frustration. It is hard for me to imagine what it must be […]
The journal pictured yesterday was where I first started to gather my thoughts about how to present the relationship between my brother[1] and the rest of my family. The statement of purpose is dated April 1992; my photography began a few years earlier. This journal chronicles visits to Michael’s group home and photographs I took of […]
I started my blog in January of this year (2013), with the intent to focus on different aspects of autism, being a brother of a low-functioning, nonverbal, autistic individual. (This is an appropriate place to thank all of you who have been reading my blog entries. I am deeply grateful for your ‘likes’ and comments.) […]
