Beautiful Mother, Problematic Motherhood

She pushed the stroller into Aurora Commons, told us Dennis had told her we could help her. It was a situation full of irony. Dennis has been a vocal opponent of the ministry of the Commons. What prompted him to send this woman and her son to Aurora Commons? Maybe it was because she was attractive. “Undeserving” women—free loaders, welfare queens, moochers—are supposed to be unattractive, their undeserving status written in their ugly faces. So maybe Dennis figured this woman must be deserving because she was pretty. Maybe Dennis interacted with her long enough to be actually touched, maybe even haunted, by the pathos of her life. Her three year old son was autistic. Completely non-verbal. Active. Strong. Wild. And she was his sole support, his sole care-giver. And there was no one to care for her, to support her. How does a mother provide twenty-four/seven care for her son and earn the money needed to buy food, pay rent, put clothes on their backs and provide medical care? Maybe Dennis paid attention to this mother long enough to feel the weight of all this. Maybe the impossibilities of her life touched some soft spot in his heart. Whatever the reason, he pointed her our direction. She wheeled her son in among us looking for help.

Christians appropriately challenge abortion by affirming that life is a divine gift. Surely this view of life as a gift from heaven calls us to happily participate in funding life-long support for mothers who take on the incredibly daunting calling of caring for autistic sons.

It's easy and sweet to imagine a mother and an affectionate, responsive three-year old. It's a far more complicated picture to watch a mother dealing with a son with severe autism. The least we can do is provide the assistance that money can buy. We can happily pay the taxes necessary to provide a reliable, life-long home for broken children and their beautiful mothers.