Sad Autism Stories

Earlier this week, on one of the many Autism email lists I read, the news arrived. A little boy in Maple Valley, WA (about an hour south of where I live) had walked out of his house at night and was struck and killed by a hit and run driver. He was 3. Here's a link to the story.

This really hits home for me. Hutton used to leave the house and yard a lot. Thank goodness he seems to have outgrown this autistic tendency. The second time he left the house, he walked to the end of the street and crossed a busy road. We found him a few minutes later at the home across the street from our street, but it was nerve-wracking. Another time, Hutton, wearing only a diaper, ended up at the other end of the street, in the creek. Again, he was found quickly, but each of these instances caused me to age 20 years. I'm surprised my hair hasn't turned white.

Though soon after the first escape, we added a bar lock at the top of the door, and put alarms on the doors, there were still a few more escapes. The times I'd be in the yard, and look away for a minute, to realize Hutton wasn't around. One of these times, a family had been walking on the trail that cuts across the end of our street (where the creek is) and saw Hutton walking towards them. They brought him up the street, and I thanked them and started to walk Hutton back into our yard. I had to put up with the mother of the family giving me THE LOOK. Autism parents know it well. THE LOOK says, "You may just be the worst, most irresponsible parent I've ever seen." I tend to smile as politely as possible (no, really, I don't give them an "eat shit" smile at all!) and walk away without going through the whole, "You see my son has Autism..." spiel. That rarely changes THE LOOK, and frankly, I don't really want to bother with some people. Let them believe that I was passed out with a bottle of tequila in front of the TV and woke up hours later to realize my son was gone. (No, I'm not a tequila drinker. Though I do like margaritas, I'm way too lazy to make them.)

I can only imagine the pain the family of this boy is going through right now, and I'm sure there are people who will hear the news and blame the parents. Very sad.

The second story takes place in South Florida, my old stompin' grounds, where Hubby and I lived right after we married. This story involves a 21-year-old man with Autism being sexually assaulted by a man hired by the victim's family to take him on outings. This one tends to make me dread the future, as there is no telling at this point just what Hutton will be like when he is a young man. Even now, as a soon-to-be-kindergartner, he has many, many adults in his life who interact with him in one-on-one situations. All I can say is, I completely trust all of the adults he has in his life right now, but sick, sick people live in this world. Which reminds me: we have to do "the talk" with Hutton about private parts soon.