Gray Hair

On Friday I did something I never had to do before - plucked gray hairs out of my head.  I've been so vain about the fact that at 55 years old, had so few gray hairs as to be nonexistent.  Well, not anymore!

What was far scarier, though, was seeing a few of the ARC Broward clients arrive that  morning for their day program.  They are all developmentally delayed, some autism, some mentally retarded, some other diagnoses.  I'll be looking at this program, and others like it, for Noah soon, so I'm trying to be observant about the details.  The detail that shocked me, horrified me, was the little old lady with the gray hair, wearing a helmet on her head.  Was she wearing the helmet because she was a football fan?  Or because she just liked helmets?  Not likely.  More likely, it was because she was self-injurious.  Even at her age.

I don't believe in my heart of hearts that a cure for autism is coming down the pike anytime soon.  So chances are that one day, sooner that I'd like,  it will be Noah, with gray hair, in a program like this.  Hopefully his aggression will have mellowed out by then, or all the other program members will need to wear helmets.

In Another Life

Listening to Katy Perry's song "In Another Life," made me a little wistful yesterday.  In another life, I would have:

one child graduating from college this year and another one preparing to enter next year, not necessarily Ivy League, any old college would do;

a sweetly supportive husband with a great sense of humor and a mammoth bank account (hey, if we're going to dream, let's dream big);

planned a fulfilling career for myself, maybe gone to law school,  instead of just accepting jobs that led nowhere;

acquired a dog much sooner.