My now adult daughter - the one with autism + - and I attended a funeral visitation recently. A teacher of my daughter had lost a precious family member, and we went to pay our respects.
There was a line and we joined the back of it to wait our turn. One gentleman arrived behind us, then another. The two men began to chat. Loudly. One said he was a chemistry teacher at the high school. They established some connections and talked about all sorts of things. Loudly. At one point, my daughter whispered very quietly in my ear that those two men sure did talk a lot. Yes, they sure did.
One explained that he did not know the deceased, but that he worked at the same school with the daughter of the deceased, the special education teacher. And LOUDLY, he told the other man he could not do what that teacher does, work with the special needs students. She has a hard job, he told the other man.That job can be difficult.
At a visitation where one of the immediate family members is a special education teacher, don't you think there will be special education students in the line? Do you think an individual with a disability may not want to hear you talk about how difficult they are and how you could never do that? Another family joined the back of the line behind the two men, this family had with them a young adult in a wheelchair, and my guess was that was another student of the teacher we were all there to support.
I wanted to stomp on his foot and hiss, "SHUT. UP. NOW." but I did not.
Would you believe he told his story to someone ELSE? Yes, loudly.
A good reminder for me to be careful what I am saying in public. You never know who might be within listening range.
