Following Ezra : What One Father Learned About Gumby, Otters, Autism, and Love From His Extraordi Nary Son

A heartwarming, intimate and amusing memoir of a father's experience raising his autistic son. When Tom Fields-Meyer's son Ezra was three and showing early signs of autism, a therapist suggested that the father needed to grieve. "For what?" he asked. The answer: "For the child he didn't turn out to be." That moment helped strengthen the author's resolve to do just the opposite: to love the child Ezra was, a quirky boy with a fascinating and complex mind. Full of tender moments and unexpected humor, Following Ezra is the story of a father and son on a ten-year journey from Ezra's diagnosis to the dawn of his adolescence. It celebrates his growth from a remote toddler to an extraordinary young man, connected in his own remarkable ways to the world around him. A heartwarming, intimate, and amusing memoir of a father’s experience raising his autistic son. When Tom Fields-Meyer’s son Ezra was three and showing early signs of autism, a therapist suggested that the father needed to grieve. “For what?” Tom asked. The answer: “For the child he didn't turn out to be.” That moment helped strengthen the author’s resolve to do just the opposite: to love the child Ezra was, a quirky boy with a fascinating and complex mind. Full of tender moments and unexpected humor, Following Ezra is the story of a father and son on a ten-year journey from Ezra’s diagnosis to the dawn of his adolescence. It celebrates his growth from a toddler to an extraordinary young man, connected in his own remarkable ways to the world around him. And through Ezra’s eyes, Tom—and, in turn, the reader—gains a new and beautiful understanding of the world. A heartwarming and hopeful memoir of a father's experience raising his autistic son. When his son Ezra was diagnosed with autism, Tom Fields-Meyer knew little about parenting and even less about neurological disorders. This intimate memoir chronicles his remarkable experiences of learning and growth from the time Ezra was diagnosed at age three to his bar mitzvah at thirteen. In that time, Ezra evolves from a remote, peculiar toddler to an extraordinary young man, not cured," but connected-in his own unique way-to the world around him. Ex-soldier and Jesuit Charles du Luc investigates the 1686 murder of a woman who was trying to prove she was the heir to the Mynette fortune and claim money that was otherwise intended for Louis le Grand School in Paris