We hear and read so many stories of how Autism impacts us in negative ways and how Autistic people have done things that are hurtful in society that I thought it would be refreshing and encouraging to write a story about how God used an Autistic girl and a very special Autistic trait of hers to do something truly positive and miraculous in someone else's life. Everything about this story is 100% true.
Seven months ago, a couple that had been together for 37 years was separated by death. A sudden and unexpected medical event took the life of the woman. This was a most tragic event for the entire family but as you can imagine, it was most difficult for her partner. She had been the only woman he had ever been with and that he had ever loved in such a way. She had taught him so many beautiful things about life and her generous and loving spirit never waned. Even in the hardest times when they experienced extreme difficulties in just trying to make ends meet, she was always happy and encouraging and never failed to share even if she had almost nothing. She was a true beacon of joy and light.
Her passing was so sudden and so unexpected that for the longest time her partner could not overcome his grief. His sorrow was inconsolable and unrelenting to the point where he had decided that he too could not go on without his beloved and that he wanted to die himself. He had reached the deepest levels of his grief. It was so bad that he would literally look out the window and everything would be gray, literally gray. For the first three days he had actually lost the ability to see nature in color and even birds chirping sounded mechanical. He could not see the beauty of nature and life around him anymore and he had become hopeless.
Well this woman had a niece, an Aspergian niece. She had not grown up in close physical proximity to her aunt but they had always been emotionally close. Her aunt had always treated her and her siblings with love and had always tried to spoil them whenever she could. They had visited each other a few times over the years and when they had, the niece had always been able to spend precious time with him as well and even though they had only spent a very little time actually together, she had felt a dear and special closeness to him.
It had been many years since the niece and the man had spoken and even after the tragic death of her aunt, the niece was so full of grief and confusion that she literally could not speak about the event. She had so much wanted to call the man and talk to him and console him and share her own memories and grieving but she could not because she simply could not formulate the words. She did not know what to say or how to say it. So months went by without her ever saying anything.
Then one day, about five months later, something stirred in her heart and she decided to reach out to the man and give him a call. He lives on the opposite coast from her so the best way to reach him was to call. Since she had only found out about her Asperger's very recently, he had no idea that she was on the Spectrum because they had not talked since she had found out.
He was so happy to hear from her that night that they talked about so many things. Eventually the conversation shifted to her Asperger's and they spent a good amount of time talking about that. He was not really familiar with the Spectrum and what it is like so they talked about what it was like for her and she taught him about all the challenging things she deals with as well as all the beautiful parts of Asperger's including her little girl side which he was able to get glimpses of. Usually she would not be so vulnerable to let her little girl out so readily, but in this case it felt safe and natural and she was already bonded to him anyway so it was all good. That conversation lasted almost three hours. Then the next day she mailed him pictures of all the fun and exciting things that she and her husband and brother had been doing, all the fun sports they did and pictures of them camping in the woods and kayaking on the lake and skiing together.
Well another month went by before she had a chance to talk to the man again. And when they did he told her something that rocked her world. He said that in their previous conversation, when they had first started talking, he thought she was a little weird. A few months before his partner died, he had had a massive medical emergency which had made him lose his entire memory and so even now there are many things that he does not remember including parts of his past relationship with the niece. But he kept talking with her and the more they talked the more he listened to her and the more he listened the better he started to get to know her and not only hear her words but to actually see her little girl spirit. He said that he was so moved by her pure childlike love and lust for life about being out in nature that it gave him hope that he could live again. He said how she had encouraged and inspired him when she talked about how she loved waking up on their camping trips to the birds chirping and the woodpeckers pecking away at the trees looking for breakfast. It was like a curtain had been pulled back from his eyes and he was able to want to love nature again. It was as if an infectious spark had ignited from her to him. He told her that her little girl heart had saved his life. He no longer felt like he needed to die but that he could actually go on and live again. He felt like he was no longer just having to exist but that he could actually start to enjoy living. She was so honored and happy that God had used her in that way because she knew that his decision to find beauty and life again would not only give him hope in a new life but would also make her aunt so happy.
The niece and the man have spoken several times since then and every time they speak he tells her what a wonderful person she is and how much he loves her and is enjoying getting to know her. And she is loving getting to know him better as well and is growing in her love for him. And this has been so powerful for her because six months after losing her aunt she lost her most dearly beloved uncle as well with whom she had had a very special bond since infancy. So even though her uncle can never be replaced, she now has a new and beautiful friendship with this "new uncle".
Out of tragedy and grief came a beautiful new friendship and it was an Aspie's little girl trait that brought this new friendship to life and not only helped her with her grief of losing her beloved aunt and uncle but helped restore his life as well. Many people over the months had tried to help him and console him to try to bring him out of the deepest level of grief and despair but it took the love of an Apsergian spirit to help bring him up out of the deepest grips and back to the beginnings of a new and beautiful life.
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"I'm bad and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."
Wreck It Ralph
Last edited by skibum on 12 Jun 2014, 2:46 pm, edited 6 times in total.
12 Jun 2014, 11:52 am
Much needed.
