After the murder of Katie, one of the things that shone through clearest of all in news reports and in blog comments sections and most of all in my private correspondance with him was the unquestioning love and total acceptance Mike has for Katie. My family nd Mike’s have swapped pictures of each other and in one of the many of the McCarron’s we have had printed and framed is a picture of Katie sitting on Mike’s knee. The expression on Mike’s face is something to behold. It is total and utter pride and happiness. He’s looking at his beautiful granddaughter, not the camera.
Another picture Mike sent us was one of the extended McCarron clan holding up a sign with a message for Megan, their newest granddaughter, on it. The message is private, the act one of pure unquestioning acceptance and love.
Megan’s other granddad is a Captain for British Airways. A quiet, reserved, very British man he personifies the unflappable Englishman in all he does and says. His life is one of quiet pragmatism in all matters. Except when it comes to his granddaughters. For Megan he recently walked the streets of New York covering a distance of fifteen blocks searching for a toy that Amazon.com did not carry because he knew that Meg would get a lot out of it. He should’ve been resting between flights but elected to sacrifice that time for his granddaughter who he dotes on.
Today I read an entry from Susan which demonstrates once more what grandparents can do to help their children and grandchildren. The poem Susan wrote is very very good. The picture she posted of her Dad and her son exchanging a look of mutual love is pure gold.
Left Brain Right Brain 
This hit me hard. Today would have been my moms 78th birthday-cancer took her too soon. She died not long after we had a diagnosis and started treatment, so she saw her at our lowest point. She was my daughter’s favorite person, the one who loved her and believed in her when the rest of the world was condemning her.
I realize now my mom raised a few kids on the spectrum, we just weren’t called that back in the early 1960’s. My mom expected a few basic standards of behavior, but never forced us to be what we weren’t. If I was quiet and liked to read, she gave me books (I have her copy of Shakespeare) and let me be. The other grandparents are good to us, but they don’t have the level of connection and understanding.
Megan is lucky to have so many special people in her life.
Thanks for the link, Kev, and for keeping us posted about the McCarrons, too.
Thanks, Kev.
I agree, Susan’s poem is great. I also thank you for sharing the updates on the McCarron’s and your family. I think a grandparent who can say to a parent, “You were like this, too,” is a valuable resource, though not all grandparents can say that. I think there were a lot of parent’s like Ruth’s who didn’t freak out and medicalize their spectrum kids in the past. It’s still common enough for autistic kids not to be diagnosed until 8 or 10 even now, for different reasons. Not everyone medicalizes everything. The book, “Raising Blaze,” is interesting because you can see an extended family that enjoys its status as far from typical. The grandfather goes with the mom to the IEP meetings, as I remember. She’s a single mom.
Blaze sounds exactly like a PDD,nos child, he has terrible problems with school, but his mom, the book’s author, refuses to state his diagnosis in the book, not out of shame but as a reaction against the habit of labelling people.
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