stevekenson | My Brother David

Today is my “little” brother David’s birthday. (Although he’s 35 today, he is still and will always be my “little” brother.) David is a remarkable guy, with pretty remarkable parents we are fortunate enough to share.

You see, when David was two, he was diagnosed as autistic. Doctors recommended that our parents institutionalize him, because he would never live a “normal life.” Mom & Dad wouldn’t hear of such a thing. So they worked through tantrums and outbursts (because David did have them). They fought with every school district we lived in for the right attention and programs. They helped David when he had seizures as a teenager and had to be on medication (which he's been off for years now). They provided help and encouragement along with discipline and guidance, and they taught me to always look out for my little brother.

For his part, David never gave up, whether it was parts of school where he had trouble (there are others, like mathematics, where he excels), remedial reading, finding his first after-school job, attending vocational school, or volunteering his time for literally years at the hospital where he works now (full-time), after having proven himself the hardest and most dedicated worker they had ever seen.

Now, decades after the “experts” pronounced my little brother a lost cause for life, he has a high school diploma, a two-year accounting degree, a job, a car, his own condo (and mortgage), and is more “high functioning” than a lot of the so-called “normal” people I know. Today I got to celebrate his birthday with my family, and I also want to celebrate all that he, and they, have achieved.

Happy birthday, Dave, and many, many more.