Sharing Jeffery…

I recently was requested by a local church group to speak to them about autism. To be more specific, about Jeffery and our experiences dealing with autism through him. One of the leaders of the group is a longtime friend of my wife’s family. She worked with my wife’s mother at a local bank branch before they both retired and when Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimers,  she would take her on trips and exercise classes to keep Mom engaged. During this time, my wife introduced her to my blog about Jeffery and she ended up being one of the blog’s followers. It was this blog that inspired her to ask if I would speak to her group. 

I agreed to this completely oblivious to the fact that public speaking and me go together like fire and the “old gasoline and match factory” (Borrowing from “Rescue Squad Mater“). I can remember going into pseudo nervous breakdowns whenever the need came in school of addressing the whole class. I would speed through whatever I was supposed to be saying like an auctioneer, with the only goal being to finish and sit back down. 

Clarity of information given? 

None of that! 

Eye Contact?? 

Highly overated! 

Use of time allotted??? 

Only if 30 seconds qualified. 

My voice would waver and shake and I’m sure if I had a high pitched voice, I would have sounded like “Tiny Tim” singing “Tip-toe through the Tulips.” Ok, I realize that is way too old a reference for many…how about Mickey Mouse in front of a fan?? Adam Levine on helium??? You get the idea. 

I decided I would talk about some of the different aspects of autism and interject different posts from my blog to emphasize the points. I was given permission by my host to read from my blog as I wanted as it was the main basis for choosing me to speak in the first place. This was acceptable to me as reading straight from a piece of paper is exactly how I used to do it back in the “old days.” I also decided to bring along a picture of Jeffery so they could see who I was talking about. Not just any picture, I brought along the Mack Daddy of pictures that was the size of a small billboard. I’m only slightly exaggerating here but it was a big one. It would serve a purpose though as showing people that just by looking at that picture or the child, you would have no idea that anything was wrong with them.

So the day approached and I was feeling pretty confident about what I was going to talk about plus I had my wife with me for moral support, factual input and if needed….CPR! When we got to the church, there were a number of cars there so I thought…”It doesn’t look like a lot of people….this won’t be so bad.” When we came to the meeting place it was not what I was expecting…there were about five people there. I stared for a moment and to be totally honest, I thought, ” Man….they invited a lot of empty chairs tonight.” But as we sat down to talk for a bit, it was clear that this was going to be just fine. The people there were warm and friendly and very attentive. Instead of standing at the lecturne and addressing them from there, we all sat at a round table and it was more like a forum discussion. I was able to cover all my talking points, intermixed with readings from my blog and we answered any questions the group had and it was great. Not anything like I imagined but better as I was able to talk openly and freely about my favorite subject without the need for paramedics. I still have no idea if I could speak to a large crowd of people but to a small group? Mission accomplished! They thanked us for coming and I thanked them for giving me the opportunity to speak to them and more importantly, for allowing me another venue for “sharing Jeffery.”

Jeffery 3.0