Our Autism Story: A Story of Hope, Love and Loss

By Carolyn Prater

Editor’s note: In recognition of Autism Awareness Month, we invited members of the CHD community to submit their personal stories about autism, and how it has affected them and their families.

My first grandson is Asher. He is 20 years old now. Asher is severely autistic and non-verbal.

He was given the Hepatitis B vaccine at the hospital, without permission, and when he was only 2 hrs old.

A very positive and hopeful-for-others aspect of Asher’s life is that my daughter taught him to swim. Every year, it seems that we hear of an autistic person who drowned.

It took my daughter three summers to teach Asher to swim. She was so dedicated and had total patience and calmness in teaching him to swim.

She would bring him into the pool. She would tell him to go to sleep in the water. He liked the water, but he seemed terrified to sleep on it, at first. She would say, go to sleep on the water like Mama, then she would float on her back, right beside him.

She repeated these actions over and over for three summers. And then, one day when he was 13, she was standing in the pool beside him talking with an older neighbor.

Then she looked at Asher. There he was, floating on the water.

Ever since, he loved the pool, would stay in the deep end of it for hours, floating and doing all kinds of swimming maneuvers. Don’t ever give up. You, as the teacher, must be patient at all times.

I wish I could say that all of Asher’s life has gone so well. His bitter father and mother were divorced, and the father has made sure he has kept Asher from his mother and all of his relatives on his mother’s side of the family for four years. It is heart-wrenching.

Families with an autistic child often end in divorce. In one court hearing, we learned that his father keeps Asher sedated on drugs now, whereas my daughter had learned that vegetable smoothies were making Asher more clear-headed all the time.

We had plans to teach Asher more skills, hoping that someday, he might be able to work as a bagger for groceries or something.

We will never give up trying to legally get Asher back into our lives. He needs a lot of prayers.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children’s Health Defense.

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