This is Liam

12/10/2025

A dear friend from South Africa sent me this picture.

She saw it on a friend's status.
"It made me think of Liam!" She wrote

😱😳 I could just stare.

I don't know whose picture or painting it is. I don't know who I need to credit for it.

I DO know that it does look like Liam and it captures my boy's spirit beautifully! 💙 (Even though it's not Liam)

Pure JOY! 🎉🤍

I absolutely love this.

12/08/2025

Rain or wind, sunshine or snow
One thing is for sure I know:

This is where you love to be
Where you feel excited, alive and free

Out on the trails, walking with me
Experiencing Nature, so much to see

I stopped. I stared. Can it be true?
You smiled, you said, out of the blue:

"Happy!!" 😱😳

One word,
expressing, telling me how you feel,
In our world this is a big, big deal

A first! So special! I swallow my tears
There's hope,
ALWAYS
we'll conquer our fears

Just when you think it's dark and night
You reveal a shining beam of light 💡

One day at a time, foreward we go
Each gain SO precious,
I let the tears flow...

12/08/2025

"Have a holly, jolly Christmas! 🎅🏻🎄🎵"

Michael Bublé is the clear winner this year.
I wonder how many times I've heard the first half of this song today 😉😁

12/03/2025

True story! 🤣🤪

12/01/2025

❤️

12/01/2025

You get creative through the years with fixing stuff 😉🤪

A lot of Autism Families will know what I'm talking about. In Canada we have drywall and wood, unlike the brick walls we have in South Africa. Here the walls are left with the evidence of meltdowns or frustration. Liam's latest thing is kicking against walls.
I move the couch, I move the bed, but he still manages to get a few kicks in unexpectedly. We have to constantly repair and replace and restore damaged goods.

I discovered these wall panels at Home Depot and cannot stop staring at the difference it makes. Thank goodness! 🎉
A dear neighbour and Liam's Dad managed to do (and glue) a bit of magic this afternoon.

Admiring our brand new wall reminds me that I need to move the bookcase a bit. (Another dent in the wall which needs a creative solution.) Hiding it behind the bookcase will do the trick for now...or we can just extend the wall panel a bit further...🤔 Or not 😉

One day at a time 💙

11/27/2025

I had a tough day this week,

Wondering about the future
Worrying about the future
Thinking about Liam
My different child
His path
With us
Without us...

Wondering if I expect too much of him or too little?

Wondering if I do too little,
wondering if I do too much?

Tossing and turning throughout the night, turmoil and unrest keeping my body and soul alert, awake. Trying to find peace, trying to figure things out, trying to make sense of this complicated thing called Life...

I had one day of Respite this week. After I dropped Liam off at his Angels from the Respite Home, I had an overwhelming feeling and longing:

To be on my own.
In Silence.
On my piano bench.

I had an urge to sit in front of the black and not-so-white-full-of-crumbs keys of my piano. I had an urge to let my fingers explore and trail up and down the keys I haven't touched for so long.
I didn't plan on what I was going to play. It just flowed out of me. The more I played the lighter I felt. (I wish the scale said the same 😉🤪) I had indescribable emotions and feelings. I felt like I was floating. Free. Weightless...

For the first time I played a piano lullaby from the Apple Music Album which I usually play to Liam when it is Bedtime. It got stuck in my chest and found its way through my fingers (and through the silent, broken B key hammer which I discovered, loose, in the piano's rib cage.) HOW did you manage to do THAT Liam?! 😄🤦‍♀️🎹

The next day we were on the trails again. I walked passed the three-in-one-tree I see every day. I envisioned myself, my husband and Liam as that tree. Three branches, three lives entwined and braided, connected,
but still individuals.
In their own right
As they should be

I smiled. I felt proud of myself.

We ARE allowed to have those days. Those days when we need an extra spoon of sugar in our tea, when we need an extra two b**b hug for just a little bit longer, when we feel sorry for ourselves and where we find ourselves in a deep, dark pit of despair...

The challenge is not to linger and stay there. The challenge is to dig deep and to unearth the joy again. To crawl out of it. Mud in between the toes and grit underneath our nails and sticks stuck in our hair and tears AND light in our eyes rising from the ashes...like WARRIORS!
Not WORRIERS!!!

Whether we find it in a piano or in Nature or in the smile of the loved one beside us...

The challenge is to see that there is so much more to Life,
so much more to Live for,
and so much more To Love 🙌🏻

Vivaaaa Life!!!

I smiled even more as I was thinking: It's not so complicated after all 🤔😉👊🏻🙏🏻❤️

11/21/2025

You can only do, what you can do 🌺

Don’t be so hard on yourself ❤️