1995

Grade 4

  1995 is an easy year to remember, with sadness on one hand and joy on the other.  We finally got a diagnosis for Hollie: Autism.  Once we learned just a little about autism it was obvious.  Now it was time to plan to appropriate steps in the school system.
  Keep in mind that Medford didn't have a physical school.  In Maine towns group together to form School Administration Units (or any of several other names).  Larger cities have their own schools, but smaller towns and cities may have one central school, or grades K-5 in each town with a central middle and high school, Maine is, after all, a very rural state.  The primary unit Medford deals with is number 31.  Each department/unit/district has a Special Education Department or function.  Special Ed is designed to help students who are usually physically or developmentally challenged.  Unit 31 has such a department.
  Let's keep in mind that this school unit, 31, is huge; taking students from about a dozen towns.  The distance between Medford and the other most distant town is about 35 miles, there are a number, at any given time, of Special Ed students.  When we discovered Hollies' diagnosis we were eager to share that with the school, and with the Special Ed teachers.  After a couple of meetings we weren't close to getting for our daughter, what we thought she needed.  We weren't going in "blind", we were getting excellent advice from the Autism Society of Maine and several professionals.  At the next to last meeting I handed the teacher a brochure about Autism, she responded that "she didn't need that, she had a Masters Degree"; to which my answer was "then you should know how to read".  The meeting ended; but even now 15 years later it gets my dander up!  We started making plans to move.

In summer school with friend Sarah

A peaceful Piscataquis River in Medford.

The geezer on a trip to Marshall Point Lighthouse at age 55 (just a kid)