flame in the snow

My living room is cluttered with library books. If you manage to dig me out from under them, I'd love to have tea with you.

Clara Claiborne Park's "The Seige" is an amazing description of one family's journey, step by step, with their daughter who was diagnosed with autism at a time when there was very little understanding of the condition. Even more amazing is the fact that they had very little professional support to begin with, but they persevered.

The sequel to The Seige is entitled Exiting Nirvana, A Daughter's Life with Autism. Clara Park has managed to synthesize years of data collection into an amazingly readable and joyful book. Her daughter's paintings and sketches are a source of fascination to me, as well as her systems and associations, and the description of how her language developed. Clara wrote that she had, in her kitchen, a set of envelopes, separated into several categories, where the family recorded data on Jessy. The thing that struck me most was the amount of love poured into Jessy by the family, especially the mother, but also by all of the volunteers and "housemates" over the years. Without this "village", Jessy's life would have developed so richly and fully. (A side note: Jessy's paintings are factual and magical at the same time, they're quite beautiful.)

A Thorn in My Pocket, by Eustacia Cutler, is a must-read for those of us who have read Temple Grandin's and Donna Williams' books. Her elegantly understated eloquence speaks for all of us autie parents. If Temple's Thinking in Pictures was a re-baptism of my idea of what it is to be human, Eustacia's tale stimulates me to re-evaluate my thoughts about maternity. I admire her bravery in the face of the misunderstandings of what autism was at the time her daughter was young.