BY JENNIFER AND ANDREW MADRIGAL
Recently, my middle son was asked to write an essay on a topic of his choice. Andrew, being the caring brother that he is, chose to write an essay on his little brother, Nicholas. While I have always known that the boys have been affected by their brother’s conditions, I never really realized how profoundly they knew what was going on around them. Andrew is in 5th grade and he wrote this essay all by himself. As I typed it up for him, I was shocked at the intensity of his perception. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
“Ding- dong!” The doorbell rang and then my mom, dad and little brother, Nicholas, came into the room. My mom looked like she was going to cry. My dad looked very mad. His face was red with sorrow. My mom said, “We have news.” And I asked, “What’s the news?” My mom explained that my brother was deaf and that he had autism, nystagmus, low tone cerebral palsy and a 3q genetic mutation. My nana who was watching us asked, “You’re kidding right?” My mom replied, “No, we are not kidding.”
I began to wonder what life was going to be like with a brother who had all of these problems. I thought it would be hard watching him. He would get bigger and I worried that people would make fun of him. I knew I wanted to protect him from harm. Then Nicholas started making his clicking sounds. “Click, click, click, click.” I thought that was how Nicholas was going to talk. To show him love, we crowded around him and noticed that all he was doing was smiling. This made me happy to know that after everything, he was still happy. I asked my mom, “Would Nicholas always be this way?” She replied sadly, “Yes.” I kept on asking questions so that I would know more about his case and maybe be able to help him. At this time, he was not able to put his head up by himself because his muscles were so weak. So, we had to hold his neck up.
As I looked down at him, I realized he was the cutest little baby in the world! He had a white face and an ear to ear smile. He looked very tired, but he still kept that smile on his face. He looked up at me and his eyes were fluttering side to side as he tried to focus on me. He smiled and I smiled back at him. I felt like he would be smiling for the rest of his life and never stop. I continued to look at him when my family left and was thinking about how much I loved him. I may not be able to do the same stuff with Nicholas as others do, but I will do what I can to make our lives together the best ever!
