Parents know that raising children is a lot of hard work. Not only do they take care of them, they have to do everything to ensure that their kids are happy and are living life to the fullest. In October, kids love to go trick-or-treating. Taking them out with some of their best friends, dressed in costume, can be one of the most memorable events of the year.
However, for kids with disabilities, it’s difficult to do something like Halloween. Laura Richards knows this feeling too well, and wrote about her Halloween experience with her disabled son. He is legally blind, hearing-impaired, and dyslexic. Laura does everything in her power to make sure that her son is taken care of well. She has taken him to 24 surgeries in the 15 years he’s been alive, but there are certain things that she can’t provide him. One of those things is friendship.
The problem is, because he needs surgery so often, he misses out on a lot of opportunities to make friends. Not only that, but the children in his special needs classes didn’t really have play dates or birthday parties like the other kids. Laura believes that this might be due to the fact that they’re afraid of potential rejection, but this created a bad environment where the kids in school are not making friends with each other.
However, Laura’s son is now starting to make friends now that he’s a sophomore in college. What has helped him is having a lot of hobbies, such as film, photography, and editing videos despite his limited vision. Now that he can bond with fellow classmates over these things, which is doing wonders on his confidence.
Now that he’s bonding with his classmates, he can finally trick-or-treat with friends! Last Halloween, he went with a fellow classmate accompanied by his dad. This activity is normally dangerous in the dark because of his limited vision, but the father kept a watchful eye on him and they were able to enjoy the day without any issues. It took years, but Laura’s son was finally able to go trick-or-treating with a real friend.
This is a touching story for us to read at J&D Ultracare. We’ve been providing nursing services to the medically fragile population in Suffern, New York since 1985 because we care about keeping them in good health. When we help our patients and provide support their families, they can continue to live fulfilling lives like Laura’s son.
If you enjoyed this post, we recommend reading the full story on the New York Times by clicking here. It’s a full, personal account from Laura herself and she does a fantastic job of telling the story about her family. Thank you so much Laura for being open and sharing this with everyone!