Excellent story, Dan, and I’ll second Terijo about wanting to read more (although it’s a sad one). I’m glad autism awareness was low when I was a kid; I’m sure my mother would have tried to fix me (as she tried to fix me in other ways — she meant well). As I got older it got easier to pretend to be a people; now in my 60s it’s getting harder again. Helps to have someone who loves me and doesn’t care.