I currently have a 20 year old autistic boy and his mother as my 3 week guests. They are delightful, been here a week. He speaks, uses computers, is in a special school here and is a lovely person. I was away for 4 days, they were here alone with also his personal teacher who the family hires occasionally to live with him to teach him sports and other skills. He is renting my extra room for their time here.
I returned home last night from the airport to find the police here and the mother crying. Seems she left to go buy pizza with the teacher and the boy took off. At his home in Lima, Peru, he follows directions to stay at home with no problem, but here…he wanted to explore. He “thinks” the US is totally safe and everyone is delightfully kind. That’s the mind of an innocent, for sure. He literally walked 10 miles, over the course of 4 hours. the police had a BOLO, and air support looking for him. A couple saw him sitting in the middle of a street because he was so tired. He doesn’t know any better. They tried to speak to him and saw the traits of stimming and indirect eye contact because they have a 6 year old autistic daughter.
Is that a God shot, or what?
The police brought him home, with the father, as support. We all thanked an hugged the police and the father. It was a real miracle to have this happy ending. In Miami, that doesn’t happen often. I guess I wanted to post this as a reminder that our guests are real people, not just thoughtless, selfish people who take advantage of our hospitality. I post my complaints here often, but, it’s nice to be able to post something meaningful. And a happy ending.
To those who wish to criticize the mother for leaving her son home alone - Don’t. She has beaten herself up enough. She has taken measures to provide him with ID etc at the suggestion of the police.