My Mom

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"Before she was my mom she was voted "Most Friendly" in her high school in Alabama. That personality remains. Wherever we go she seems to know someone, if she doesn't she introduces herself quickly. When I was a kid she would take me to work with her at The Emory Clinic, where she worked as a medical secretary. She let me "work" with her at my own desk. I loved to sharpen pencils and straighten up papers. She would buy me an Eskimo Pie for being a good helper. My brother, Denny, is profoundly Autistic. She gathered as much information as she could to be his advocate. She still does that for him today. He lives with her and my stepfather. Sometimes when I visit with my children I get to hear her read the same stories that she would read us both when we were little kids. Denny still loves the story of "The Diamond D" from the Sesame Street book.
Now she is known to my four children as Granny Sue. She invites them to spend Friday evenings as a sleepover in her home. She teaches them to make biscuits for breakfast on Saturday mornings. She also makes sure they have paper, pens, crayons and paints so that they can create art while sitting in her kitchen. She is truly a "GRAND" Mother!"

This layout used Dorothy's Kitchen, Crepe Paper flowers and butterfly wings created by Mo Jackson. The font: Michele

My mother has taken care of my autistic brother for 43 years and she amazes me every day with patience, fierce determination and love. I was fortunate to have a wonderful book recommended to me by a friend. She knows we have reading night with our children every evening and suggested the book Alcapone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Cheldenko. My friend did not know that I had an autistic brother. This book so clearly expressed the frustrations and hopes that the family has for an autistic child. My children comforted me as I cried reading the book to them. The book opened opportunities to discuss my childhood with my brothers autistic idiosyncrasies and sometimes violent outbursts during his adolecense. I am proud of my children for simply excepting Denny for the person he is, their Uncle Denny. So, if you get a chance check out Alcapone Does My Shirts from your local library.