Thank you, to Joshua Eisenstat's mom, Selma, and his Uncle Doug for replying to my blog. I appreciate you sharing more about Joshua.
I had written on April 2 in a post entitled "The Best From Today," about Selma Eisenstat and her message on CNN about her son Joshua. In response to that post, I received two replies that further touched me. Selma herself, along with Joshua's Uncle Doug left messages. I wanted to share them with everyone, so they wouldn't be missed.
- And...
I'm Joshua's Uncle Doug. I was privileged to live with Joshua three different times during my life so we were very close and his death was very hard on me and our whole family. Every time I see another person that has special needs, I smile. Yes, I know its hard, but I too also know the joy. I remember one time that Joshua was having a really bad seizure and he kicked his Dad during the seizure and once he was out of it, he hugged him and said sorry.
He had that pure love as they all do. I agree with Selma, the road is hard, but it is so worth it.
Uncle Doug
I was so moved by each of their replies, and of course with the piece from CNN. I transcribed the piece for a fellow blogger who requested it (see original post, in messages section), as an amateur, so my apologies if I got something wrong. The last paragraph, Selma's powerful advice to others, is beautiful. This is something I wish every parent of an autistic child could see:
Please visit the Joshua Eisenstat blog, for video, pictures, and more thoughts on Joshua's life. It's quite plain to see how very loved Joshua was, and how deeply those who knew him, miss him.
"When I hear the child being diagnosed with autism or being born with disabilities, I don't ever know if they would understand if I said, 'do you know how lucky you are?' I know it's gonna be a hard road, I know that, um, you're gonna have sleepless nights and you're gonna have many tears, 'cause I've had many tears. But, um, you get, I feel like you get a slice of heaven and a pure love in your home. You learn service and you learn, you just work together. Once you stop seeing what my child can't do, and you start seeing what they can do, it's a beautiful...I wish you could have met him, just cause I could feel your love for him."
This Way of Life
"Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not possible to separate the autism from the person."
- Jim Sinclair
6 comments:
"I don't ever know if they would understand if I said, 'do you know how lucky you are?"
That is something I remember telling Alex's teacher every year at the beginning of the year (or sooner if I knew they would be teaching him the following year). And I told them they likely wouldn't understand that statement at that point but they would..... More than one teacher told me at the end of the year that I was right... :)
Thanx for introducing Joshua to us and thanx Selma for keeping his light alive.
Thank you so much for that inspirational story. Although sad, you could tell that Joshua had the best life he could and he was so loved. It makes me appreciate my boy with Autism that much more if it's possible. I think when people go "How do you do it?" when it comes to my son, I need to start going "Well how do you do it?"...all kids bring challenges, but for parents of those with Autism, those challenges can sometimes be gifts that those with typical kids don't ever experience! God Bless Joshua and his family!
Very touching.
That was also my favorite story that day on CNN. I cried so much when I realized Joshua had died.
For my part everybody ought to glance at this.
Quite helpful material, thank you for this post.
Post a Comment