Tribute to a special person

After three years of teaching in this kind of classroom, I lost a friend.   He was 5, unable to speak, walk or use his hands very much.  He was in pain every day of his life, but he lived his life, he loved and he had joy.  When I would walk into my classroom he would give me a smile that would create rainbows in my heart.

We worked very hard together, he and I.  First, we worked on his acclimating to a school day.  It was difficult for him to leave his mom and difficult for his mom to let him spend time with us.   At the beginning  he was just 3 years old.   When his mom and I realized that we could handle his pain symptoms at school and give him the comfort or encouragement that he needed, she relaxed and allowed him to stay in school when I called to give her a report that he was having a rough day.  

He began to trust me, trust the staff.   We worked on his independence, on his communicaton skills, on his cooperation skills.   He understood everything that was said to him.   Like a typical child, there were times he was mad at us, times that he was uncooperative, but he had a willing and giving spirit.

Communication with this child was easy.   We developed eye gaze communication, looking at the person speaking for yes, looking away for no.  He developed the eye roll that denoted "you've got to be kidding me."

He loved the other children in the class.  When he was 4, we had a new child in the room,  much smaller and more physically impaired than he.  I explained to him that he would be a big brother to her,  much like his high school brother was to him.  Very quickly he began to take responsiblity for her, and when she was fussing or crying, he would reach up his arms so that we would lay her by him.  He would scoot as close as he could,  many times, putting an arm over her, or putting his lips to her forehead.  She misses him.

When he was healthy, he never napped, keeping up an intensity of work with his body that amazed me, trying to interact with his environment, eating huge meals (almost inhaling them), operating toys with switches, knocking over blocks, listening to stories, using the computer with a switch.  As he became sick, naps became more frequent and then longer.  Soon most of his school day was napping.  The last day I spent with him in school, I had him on my lap and was reading him a book on snakes that he liked.  When he was on my lap we usually worked on sitting and breathing skills and sometimes we would read a book.  This day he was content to rest and fall asleep in my lap  his head against my chest.  It took me awhile to realize he was asleep, he was so comfortable.

He had a long struggle in the hospital and in between I was priviledged to visit him.   It was brief because he was medicated and falling asleep.   A few weeks later he was gone.

I like to think he visits or at least looks at us sometimes from his new life.   I think sometimes he paints the sky in the east just for me when I am going to work.   He is in my heart and I will miss him always.