September 26, 2021

How? 

By learning new things.

By developing new attitudes.

By visiting new places.

By meeting new people.

By having Amanda home….

That with the arrival of COVID19. the Robert’s world shrunk is obvious. His program was closed many month and when it partially opened Robert, with his unpredictable allergies and irritating asthmatic cough, couldn’t participate. For 198 months there were no horse riding. no swimming lessons, and no skiing instruction. 

But then, there was Amanda, Robert’s sister. 

She came home in the middle of July 2020, completed her two weeks long quarantine, and  began  pushing the invisible walls surrounding Robert. 

1. She took Robert for walks in many parks not far from our home. We, the parents new only a few which we visited regularly.  Amanda with an IPhone APP discovered many, many more. she took him on longer and more challenging trails. Robert loved it. 
2. Robert’s dad took him on bike trails on Cape Cod.  Amanda, however, dared to take Robert on bike rides to places in our neighborhood. They drove(for instance)  4 miles to Starbucks for Iced Carmel Macchiato. 
3. Amanda accompanied Robert to NEHSA at Little Sunapee Lake for his kayak lessons. That was not enough for her, so she bought inflatable two person kayak, so Robert, his dad, and she could go kayaking closer to home.
4.  She completed with Robert many Science project with the help of KIWICO kits, but more importantly she engaged Robert in baking all kinds of spinach pies.  I am not sure what Robert liked better, those pies or the time spent in the kitchen as baker assistant. 
5. She introduced to Robert new Netflix movies and showed him how to find them.
6. She made us, Robert’s parents, realize that more often than not, we have our own hazy biases that blind us to Robert’s abilities.    Last March,  we celebrated Robert’s 29th birthday. Robert blew the candles from his ice cream cake and then I took a knife to cut the ice cream.  Amanda protested, “It is his birthday, he should cut the cake.”  Of course he should. After all he could slice his bread since he was 4 years old.  So why we, the parents,  have never before let Robert cut his own birthday cake?  How many other tiny little things we keep from his reach? 

A week ago, Amanda returned to Paris. Robert misses her terribly, but hopefully, he also understands that his sister has her own goals she needs to pursue. Moreover, he wrote on a calendar the date, she is coming back, and every other day, she point to the written date and says, “Amanda home.”