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[RC] My Version of a Shay Days - Nat Nelson

My daughter is an autistic adult (she's 26). She
attends a day program that she throughly enjoys. The
group goes out into the community daily and helps out
hear and there - one of my daughter's favorite
activities is Meals on Wheels. She loves to help out
and talk and the individuals needing meals delivered
to their homes, and they enjoy the food and someone to
talk to. Many times her "instructer" has to honk the
horn to get her to come back to the car so they can go
to the next house :0)

When she first went to her new day program she was
very nervous - her autisium doesn't help when we
change her routine. When she came into the room she
saw a familar face "LARRY!" she explained! "BARBARA!"
Larry yelled happily back! The instructors where
amazed as Larry came to them mute due to a tramatic
experience and hadn't spoken for the entire time he
attended the program - until he saw my daughter . . .
"Barbara's new, I'll show her the ropes" he explained
like he had all the confidence in the world and Barb
happily walk by his side while he showed her all the
rooms in the building!

The one day my daughter went to visit a new
prospective group home. The other resident was
physically disabled with celbral palsy (sp?). She was
bond to a wheel chair and vocally limited to grunts
and moans. My daughter was introduced to the other
resident and she immeadiatly went over to the couch to
sit next to her and proceded to talk to her with the
other gal happly grunting and moaning smiling from ear
to ear! Her caretaker told us that is was highly
unusual for her to even look at someone she doesn't
know much less try to communicate! Then my daughter
found out that it was the gal's birthday and she
immeadiatly started singing Happy Birthday and got us
all to sing along with the gal grinning from ear to
ear!

My daughter and her freinds have many "Shay Days" -
it's simply amazing how the human sprit radiates in
many shades of light.

~Nat~
Buckeye, AZ


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