INTRODUCTION

Original (Published in "Lun's World"): 2013-1-18

As parents of Lun who suffered from Autism, we are very familiar with him, but still cannot know and understand him fully. New observations, feelings and inspirations appear along with our interaction with him.

On December 5th, 2012 the day planned for writing this introduction, an urgent call for liver transplant was made from the medical team to me. Because of this, I could not write the introduction, nor visit Lun.

I missed him dearly often while recovering in bed. I comforted myself by thinking that he was safe and comfortable under the care of the group home. Anyway, in reality he will get used to our absence when we are too old to visit him one day. By the way, visits will resume in two to three months.

Staff from the group home replied to us that Lun was unsettled since our absence for the first few weeks. He paced around inside the house and put our photos on the program board in his bedroom. Later he was somewhat calmed down by activities like listening to music and filling cups with streams of tap water.

I was discharged from hospital after eighteen days. After another two weeks, my doctor told me that I could drive. A few days later with gaining strength in body and mind we paid him a surprise visit after his dinner time.

As usual he was dressed in the deep blue T-shirt, US$0.9, bought from Alaska. Once sporting us, he turned his face with a wide open smile and ran to us. Dad gave him a  Canadian hug and he could not stop laughing for another ten minutes. The routines of teeth brushing and back scratching resumed afterwards. His hairs grew, but he was down in size, retaining a small tummy with all the fatty muscles gone on both sides around the waist. We were saddened seeing this. He got thinner day after day, eagerly awaiting our visit. Though as innocent as he was, he had the same strong emotion as us.

He is our baby. All the experiences above are pearls and jewelries of our lives. Fortunately all the articles written for the column, “The World of Lun” in the past ten years were collected and published in book form to introduce the lives and world of people with autism to you all.