Sunday was the Annual Overbrook School for the Blind Pancake Breakfast. And annually we go to it. The meal part is always a rush and never quite something to relax and enjoy (given the fact that we have so many kids and helping Ethan and..and…and..), but the after-breakfast part of them playing on the playground is such fun. This year we met Ethan’s BFF there and they played on the playground until she had to leave. My three sighted children were playing on the merry-go-round and then I noticed someone playing with Ethan. This boy, in a bright orange sweatshirt, was actively engaged with Ethan, clapping as he walked so Ethan would have sound to follow. They went all over the playground and had so much fun. And I was, frankly, DELIGHTED. So many times kids either: Stare because he’s different, or over-help him because he’s blind and therefore must not be able to do anything for himself, or ignore him because they just don’t know how to interact with him. So yeah, I was thrilled that this boy was interacting appropriately.
At some point he left the playground and I was disappointed, but Ethan kept on playing and it was fine. Then he came back, grown up man in tow.
“Are you his father?” I asked.
“Yes….Quinn came into the cafeteria saying he had made a new friend, and I really had to see it because he has Asperger’s”
!!!!!!!
So both of us parents got to experience a thrill that day.
