Writing Sample # 1
I will post samples of my writing here for my potential clients to view, as well as friends and family that I will invite here as well. To make it easier, or less confusing if you will, I will post my samples on separate pages, unless the article, or poem is rather short. In that case, I will post poems on one page, articles on another page, etc. This first sample however, is a sample of my short story, entitled 'The Gift and the Cross'. It is a fictionalized account of life with an autistic son. It is loosely based on my own life and examples, except that my son is non-verbal and has never spoken a word in his life, and I made the young child in this story learn to say a word and become closer to being verbal. So read and enjoy and please...do not take my story and post it anywhere else or claim it as your own. I wrote this story eleven years ago and the title and story were an inspiration to me and I felt that the Lord blessed me with this idea. With that in mind...read on!!
It was a struggle for the young mother, already laden with an armful of groceries and trying desperately to hold onto a very active child of about five or six years of age. Her grasp on the child's wrist was tenuous at best. As the child pulled away, a nearby shopper came over, gently took the boy by the hand and helped the weary mother and her young son get to their car.
The mother, with tears in her eyes, turned to thank the kind stranger. The older woman smiled and said kindly, “ I know what it’s like to have a young child that is so active and also autistic. Your son is autistic isn’t he?” The young mother jerked her head up in astonishment and said defensively, “ As a matter of fact, he was only recently diagnosed. How do you know about autism?” The older woman looked down for a moment at the child standing by the car, flapping his arms out to his side, then clapping himself upside the head and said, “ I too have an autistic son, although he’s grown up. Believe me, I know what you’re going through because I’ve been there. Let me help you get this young man into the car. Then I’ll give you my name and phone number. If you ever need to talk to someone, please feel free to call.”
It was a hot summer day as Liz opened the car door. Fortunately, she had left the windows partially open so that at the very least she and David wouldn’t roast on the drive home.
Liz’s husband Joseph, or Joe as everyone called him, had been killed in a car accident only eight weeks earlier and by her timing, she must have just gotten pregnant for it was only six weeks after his death that she had gotten the news that she was to be a mother again. Oh how Joe would have loved that she thought, fighting back the tears that were threatening once more to spill down her face and blur her vision.
Secondly, she was now a widow with one small child and another on the way and she wasn’t sure just how she was going to manage raising two small children on her own. Joe had always been such a help and had loved every minute of being a father. She brushed the tears quickly away and then went about getting both David and the groceries into the house.
David ran inside the house, ahead of Liz and immediately went to work on rearranging his entire collection of toy cars and trucks. Meanwhile Liz let out a sigh of unhappiness as she watched her little boy, lost in his own world. How could her life get any more messed up than it already was? Another sigh and she shuffled her way into the kitchen to put away the groceries and start dinner.
As it was a Wednesday night, David would only eat hot dogs without a bun, cold pork ‘n beans, and a glass of grape kool aid. The other nights were just about as rigid as well as far as menus were concerned. She had had to make a separate meal for David and then one for herself and Joe when he had been alive and now that he was gone, it was just easier to eat what David liked rather than make something different for herself.
I hope you enjoyed that small segment from the first page of my story 'The Gift and the Cross'. If you would like to read and own a copy of my story you may purchase it for $10.00. You can use PayPal. My paypal address is [email protected] but email me first and let me know so that I can have your copy ready for purchase. After you purchase it, I will send you the PDF format. Any purchase made will go towards helping me with our autistic son because he is still at home and we are still caring for him even though we are not (my husband nor myself) getting any younger.