Perhaps you remember The Autism Picture Page which I had online for eleven years. When I first wrote it, there were hardly any sites where people could see autistic children being themselves. That's all changed. Today, there are thousands.
This site is far more personal. It contains most of my essays from The Autism Picture Page, revised where necessary. It also contains essays not related to autism at all: commentary on transport here in my home city of Melbourne, Australia, an essay about returning to the place where I grew up and so on.
During the last few years I've been able to travel, speaking to many parents' groups and working with difficult autistic children in Europe. Ciarán (left), from Ireland, is no longer a child except by strict legal definition. Without any doubt he's caused me more trouble over the eight years I've known him than any other autistic person. When he was younger he defined himself as autistic, intellectually gifted and gay. He did not like having to play the hand that nature dealt him so was inclined to take what seemed the logical course of suicide. Fortunately, I knew others like him and they became four fast friends. They were Peter in Denmark, Anton in Russia and Michael in New Zealand. Subsequently, Michael moved to Ireland.
Of the four original friends, only Michael made good on suicide and their group has now expanded to over fifty, all living in either Russia or some part of the EU. I've had the pleasure of meeting and talking to the entire group who, with their parents and siblings, took over a pretty large camping ground outside Köln, Germany.
But of them all, Ciarán is still the most headstrong, the most physical, the one most likely to retaliate with violence if he feels he's been put down. He's in his last year of school, plays football and hurling, takes part in karate tournaments and fronts his own band. If one of the others feels like giving up, he'll explain patiently once and in detail why they shouldn't. A second time, and he could punch them.
I've written this site to please myself. Take what you want or take nothing, it's up to you. The navigation frame is on the left. Email me if you want, linds4516@gmail.com, but please don't ask me anything that you could discover for yourself with a small amount of research.
This website copyright Lindsay Weekes, 2008.