Nicke and I started a course organised by the Autism Society for Small Children last Thursday. The course is conducted for parents who recently received their child’s diagnosis and to help them understand more ASD. It also creates an opportunity for parents to meet and get together for sharing and bonding.

It started out like AA where you introduced yourself and tell them about your child with autism. Some parents broke down as they described their journey so far. I can see the eyes of despair and sadness when they talked about their child. None of us have ‘chosen’ to be in that room. I too have cried buckets in the past 3 years and I still do. I worry incessantly over Jon’s future and how he will be able to look after himself in the future.

Nicke said that we despair because of our shattered dreams for a child. Jon does not have such dreams and maybe, he is just happy in his own ways. So instead of being sad for him, we now just focus on understanding him better and make him happy.