The monkey has been in love with Miss Sarah, his speech therapist, for some time now. She was our life saver during the time that my son was trying to heal from what the teacher did to him. She showed patience towards him, and she showed him love.

Miss Sarah reminds me of Princess Merida, from the movie Brave. Beautiful red curly hair, with the most sweetest, soft voice. If you would hear the manner in how she addressed my son, you would understand why my son was in love with her.

I’ve mentioned how he would anxiously wait in the waiting area at therapy. He’d jump up and down, wave his hands and couldn’t contain his excitement in knowing that he was going to see her. On none speech therapy days, when we would go to the other building for occupational therapy, we would struggle because he knew he was not going to see Miss Sarah.

But on speech days, when she would come to get him, he would hold her hand, walk inside the classroom and simply stare at her. He was mesmerised. It was hard for him to contain his excitement even inside the class room that he need to either bounce on the ball or spin on one of the chairs until he was able to cool down and participate in the therapy. And when therapy was over he did not want to let her go. Miss Sarah would sometimes have to walk him to our car so that my parents could leave. He tried desperately to take her home with us.

We saw our son began to change during this ugly period. He began to trust other adults and we owe a lot of it to her.

A few weeks ago she called me to let me know she was leaving, going back to her hometown. And we knew this was going to be hard hit for our monkey. As much as we tried to tell our son that Miss Sarah was leaving, he did not understand.

Today was the first day without her. We knew it’d be tough. We prepared for the worst. We had talked to the manager to let them know that my parents would need assistance. My dad called me and said that he was so excited waiting for Miss. Sarah in the waiting area. And as soon as he found out that she wasn’t coming, he lost it. He went to the corner and cried and kicked and yelled and did not want to go inside. The new therapist came out to try to calm him down. And between the therapist, the manager, and my parents, they were able to drag him inside to therapy. My mom said it took most of the session for him to calm down and to accept defeat.

I know change is part of life. And I know that my son will be okay. But what I love about to Miss Sarah is she taught my son to trust and to love others that are not part of his family. And he’s learned that not everyone will harm him. And what a beautiful lesson that is.

I have always said that autism chose us. But people like Miss Sarah, chose autism. There’s always those people that come into your life for a purpose. And Miss Sarah’s purpose was to guide us towards healing.