Audiobook - An Autistic Boy's Ten-Year Romance with Snow White
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General) North American (US General American - GenAM)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
author's note. Before I begin telling this story, I need to clarify a few things right from the start. First of all, if you picked up this book expecting to read a story about how a theme park attraction miraculously cured an autistic boy, then you're going to be sadly disappointed. Although Ben's times spent with Snow, White, scary Adventures had a dramatic and positive effect on him. At 19 years old, he still remains a profoundly disabled individual. He continues to require full time supervision and is thus far completely incapable of living independently. In fact, that is precisely why I have written this book. Sharing his story is Ben's best opportunity to support himself and provide some measure of security. And every single penny of revenue this book generates will go directly into his special needs trust to provide for his long term care. Next. Although this is Ben's story in his by necessity told from my perspective, it is an unfortunate reality that a large percentage of marriages with special needs Children end in divorce. Sadly, our marriage was no different. Please do not mistake the minimal appearance of Ben's maternal side of the family in this book to mean they're not involved in his life. Quite the opposite is true. Ben is blessed with a very caring mother who is, in fact his legal guardian advocate. Now that he's an adult and who has been his primary caregiver since the day he was born. In every aspect of his life, she has been intimately and lovingly involved. That includes his entire experience with Disney and Snow White. Benjamin also has to maternal aunts and a maternal grandmother and grandfather, all of whom play significant ongoing roles in his life. I am very much aware of the fluid nature of memory. Much of this book has been constructed based on contemporaneous journal entries or block posts. I wrote at the time these things happened. But a significant part of the book is based purely on my memories of past events. Some passages are stories that I have told verbally so many times over the years that I honestly can't say whether I'm describing a memory of an actual event or a memory of a memory of a retelling of that event. The most I can say is that everything in this book is what I remember and believed to be the truth. But if, say, Ben's mother were to write a book about the same things that I have no doubt that telling would be very different. The best I can do is to be as honest with my memories as possible and hope that the truth remains, well true. Finally, I must give credit to the uniformly excellent teachers, therapists and administrators at Princeton House Charter School and Access Charter School, where Ben has attended for the past seven years. Well, it was Walt Disney World and Snow White Scary Adventures that provided the fulcrum to move Ben's world. To a very large degree, it has been the dedicated educators at pH. CS and A. C s, who have given us the lever to take advantage of that opportunity. The simple truth is that Ben has always been surrounded by people who love him and support him. I'm grateful for every single one of them. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart