Further to my earlier post on my scary encounter with my neighbor’s mentally challenged 10-year old son, I bumped into my neighbor and her son again this morning. The moment I stepped out of the house, I heard his voice. I was hoping that the lift door would open quickly and I could go inside first with Cass but the lift arrived late. We crossed path again, with my heart pounding. She looked very uneasy bumping into me and she kept looking at her son and then at me, fearing that her son will behave rudely and indecently again.  Inside the lift, I stood at the very end with Cass. B, the boy did not want to stand next to his mum and stood next to me, very closely! His mother looked very worried and tried hard to strike a conversation with me. I was very uneasy and worried that B would try to attempt to touch me again, like he tried to the other day. B’s mother said “Boy, come here” and motioned him to her side. But B would not budge a wee bit. Suddenly he said “HELLO aunty” to me and gave me a perversive stare.  His mother looked even more worried and her eyes switched from her son to me endless times. Thank God the lift door opened and I quickly bade good bye to B and my neighbor. Thank God that B did not try to act funny again.  Once we were out from the lift, Cass looked at me and gave me a relief look and smile. I praised her for not screaming and for acting so calmly. My girls know that B is mentally challenged and initially Sherilyn and Cass would run away from him as he is very fond of barging into our house whenever he sees the girls.  May God bless that boy and hopefully he will grow up normally without harming anyone.
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The poor boy did not do anything wrong. He is being so polite. Please don’t shun him because he is mentally challenged. I am glad Cass handled it, and hopefully this will serve her well as she grows. That poor kid will not just grow up and be normal as much as we would wish. There are disabilities we have to accept and deal with. Just keep his Mum in the loop and keep asking what you folks, the very lucky normal people, can do to help. I don’t want to sound preach-y, but like I have often said, we are so blessed, let’s help another human being. My friend has a 7 yr old with Down’s. We just sat down and strategize what would make it easier for him and his family to enjoy Disneyworld next week. His parents are so amazing…such love, devotion and a handful of humour! Not an easy job and I have learned so much from that little boy. Btw, Disney is totally accomodating with special needs kids. They don’t have to wait in line!
Here’s another followup : check out http://www.torontosun.com/letter. It is for Aug 20. I hope everyone has a look and learn from it. Btw, I just heard on the radio that whoever wrote that letter will be charged with a hate crime. Hope they catch that coward of a woman who wrote that.
Sorry to keep harping on this but I came across this amazing book: ‘The Reason I jump’ by Naoki Higashida. He is a 13 yr old boy with autism. Incredible eye-opener, for me at least. I think it will help ppl out there understand autism better, and other disablities as well.