The Castle We Called Home will draw you in from the very first word, until the last. It is simply a captivating story: "By the age of three, it was obvious that someone needed to be with Hayden, almost constantly, and with focus. It wasn't only because of his aggression or his lacking sense of danger. It was as much because he would otherwise wander aimlessly, looking for trouble, putting objects of any type in his mouth or destroying things. Or even worse, he would park himself in front of the TV and slip into Nowhereland.
It tormented me. Why couldn't I get more deeply into his head? It was like standing in a corridor, a door ahead, locked and bolted shut....and me, hopelessly and frantically, fumbling with a mess of keys....none of them fitting.
Was it that I genuinely didn't possess the right key? Or was it that I wasn't able to give myself the presence of mind to recognize the right key and then guide it into the lock?
Or was the problem that there really just wasn't a key anywhere that would fit?
It truly tormented me because we were falling apart at the seams. I had found the key with Genevieve. I'd only had to think her and feel her and reach down from within. With her it was all about getting into her head and her body and her world, and then letting her feel safe and accepted enough, to let me enter. From there, it was a matter of using tools that fit for her, like Fantasy. But with Hayden, I didn't feel that I had that edge.
I couldn't help feeling that I had let Hayden down. Why couldn't I do the same for him that I had done for her?
For more information about this book and others by Simone, as well as TV and radio appearances and her blog, please visit autismembrace.com or effervescentclarity.com
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"Simone is wonderful ... a must see!" Connie smith, CTS
