A Spoonful Of Comfort

The adult PJ is very different from the person he was as a child. He is still handicapped by autism, but he has learned so much that I am proud of the person he has become. He has overcome a lot of obstacles and made far more progress than I would have predicted. When he was younger, there was so much focus on the “cure” that I would never have thought I could be proud of him if he still had autism.

PJ has learned to have patience. He will wait for food or whatever else he is interested in. The younger PJ would have a meltdown if everything did not happen immediately. He no longer wakes me up at 7 a.m. to cook his fries. He will hover around my bedroom door, but he will not disturb me. He either waits until I get up or he cooks them himself. He also cooks his own sausage or bacon.

He has learned to do his own grocery shopping. He always buys the same things, but he loves to go to the market. He buys his favorite items, but we did have a time when I had to let him buy maxi pads in order to not have a scene in the store. I later found out that he liked the commercial for the maxi pads because it showed flowers and waterfalls. The commercial sold him on the maxi pads.

There was a time when he would try to open everything that he picked up at the store immediately.  I would try to stop him and this always created a scene.  He was trying to open a large bag of potato chips and I was trying to stop him. The bag burst and chips went everywhere. He was protesting loudly and we were leaving a trail of chips all through the store. Of course, all eyes were on us. I quit taking him to the store after a few scenes like this.

Now he has great patience and dignity in the market. He never liked to wait in line, but now understands how to wait his turn.  He now waits until we get home to open things.  He used to open large bottles of fruit juice and try to drink them while we were in the store, but not anymore. Grocery shopping with him is no longer the embarrassing ordeal that it used to be.

If we went to a fast food restaurant and you were walking out with your french fries, PJ would snatch them from your hands before I could stop him. I heard a lot of remarks about my rude child and what a bad mother I was. Thank God for drive through! That is how I solved that problem. Now, he knows better and your fries are safe.

He has learned tolerance. He would not tolerate any noise or action that he did not like. I’ve said that he was like an old man with bad nerves. He does not like ear plugs, but wears noise canceling headphones to shut out noises that hurt his ears. (Something else that I learned from Temple Grandin).

He has learned to respect closed doors. You can hear him hovering outside the door, but he won’t open it. He has learned to take himself to time out when he needs it. He will go into his room and close the door when he needs to calm down. I also respect his closed door.

He has learned to follow directions. He used to hate for anyone to give him directions. One of the characteristics of some people with autism is that they are resistant to learning. PJ was one of those people. Now, he seems to want to learn things. Since he loves to cook and help out in the kitchen, I could give him simple directions, but when I asked him to bring me the flour, he brought me flowers.  Oh well!

The author and poet, Maya Angelou says that “When you know better, you do better”.  PJ knows better and now he does better, autism and all.

Until next time; May you have Peace, Love and Prosperity in your life.

Claudreen Jackson

We’ve had various ways of handling the identification situation with PJ down through the years. He doesn’t like to wear anything around his neck, so we had ID necklaces that he was constantly taking off. (He did keep them on when he was with his classmates who were also wearing them). It was the same thing with ID bracelets.  He was better at not removing ID pins because they didn’t seem to bother him as much.

After he became an adult, I relaxed about the ID situation because he is never alone in the community. He has official state ID, but it is never in his possession because we had extra obstacles obtaining it. I want to make sure that we always know where it is, and with his habit of taking ID off, I didn’t want to take any chances of it getting lost. What is important to us is not what is important to him!

I wasn’t really concerned about his ID until lately. The transport van that picks him up for his day program was involved in an accident. They called me to inform me of the accident and to let me know which hospital he had been taken to. I was praying as I rushed to the hospital that no one was seriously injured.

When I got to the emergency room, PJ was stretched out on the hard backboard that accident victims are placed on. He was in a neck brace and had  an oxygen tube in his nose. He was uncomfortable, but my prayers were answered  and  he wasn’t injured. I am so proud of his maturity, because the younger PJ would have been aggressive and hard to control. He was calm and quiet and smiled when he saw me.

The problem was that he was listed as “John Doe” because he couldn’t answer any questions. I did get a chance to talk to the driver who was also in the emergency room. She, too, wasn’t seriously injured and was worried about PJ and her other passenger who is also non-verbal. She said that a car  ran a red light, hit them,  spun them around and they kept on spinning before they hit something and came to a stop.  Everyone was dazed but she did manage to give the emergency technicians the names of her passengers. The accident was shown on the news and one of the vehicles had a lot of damage, so it could have been much worse.

We don’t know what happened to the information, but once she and PJ were put into separate ambulances, he was on his own.  Of course, he wasn’t answering any questions. He wears noise blocking headphones and one of the ER doctors said that he thought that was why PJ wasn’t answering questions. (You know how typical our autistic people look). He took the headphones off and found that PJ still couldn’t answer questions.

Everyone was relieved when I got there, including me. I felt that the doctors did a good job of checking PJ out and I was very grateful that there were no injuries. I was very grateful that PJ was pleasant and co-operative during the poking and prodding. He even  took his tetanus shot with dignity. It hasn’t always been like that. Some of my worst experiences with PJ have been on doctors’ visits.

PJ could have been  John Doe for far longer than he was. Talk about something that I had not foreseen. If he is not with someone who can speak for him and he doesn’t have ID, he becomes John Doe. I had not thought of this because he is always with someone. I had forgotten about “in case of emergency”.

I am now pinning  ID to his coat and hoping he will let it be. I am now trying to teach him that it is important. Maybe his John Doe experience will help.

Until next time; May the favor of God be upon you as it was on us.

Claudreen Jackson

The Beautiful People. That’s you! If you are the parent of a child handicapped by autism or any other disability, that’s you. Even if you don’t look like it or feel like it, I know what you go through and how you love your child through all the challenges that you face.

When PJ was born, I was hanging out with the Beautiful People in  the show business world.  Life was a series of parties, shopping sprees, traveling, hit records  and concerts. Every day was a new adventure.  I was thankful to have such an exciting life.

Then, along came PJ. He was on the severe end of the autism spectrum, non-verbal, hostile, aggressive and hyper-active, with mental retardation thrown in. I was at my wit’s end. His behavior was so challenging that I couldn’t even PAY someone to be his sitter. (I hope that things have changed). I was afraid to leave him with anyone. So now, I spent my days trying to cope with autism and just trying to get through the day. I felt like life was passing me by. The life I was used to was over.  Now, life was a different kind of adventure, an adventure that I didn’t want.

Then, I met the other Beautiful People. Parents of children with disabilities and professionals who worked with us. What a revelation! There were people in the world who cared about us, who helped us, who sacrificed for us. I learned from all of you what Inner Beauty is all about.

Perhaps you have seen some of the Housewives’ or the Sportswives’  TV shows. They are some  of the more popular reality TV shows. If you look at them, they are the Beautiful People. On the outside. Once you get beneath the surface, the beauty is gone. They are not the Beautiful People that I knew or that I know now.  The Temptations had a hit record years ago called  “Beauty’s Only Skin Deep”.  The ladies on the housewives and some of the other reality TV shows are examples of that song. They get rewarded for bad behavior while we are trying to teach our children appropriate behavior. Maybe they never heard the saying, “Pretty is as pretty does”.

So they are not the Beautiful People that I am talking about. I am talking about those of you who have taught me so much. Those of you who have lifted me up when I was down and shown understanding and support. Those of you who face daily challenges and struggles with your child and manage to keep on keeping on.  Timex watches had a slogan years ago,  “Takes a licking and keep on ticking”.  You are the Beautiful People.

I want to make sure that I get some things said while I still can. I attended another funeral.  Chico Edwards, who sang with the Spinners back in the ’60s recently passed away. I have seen so many friends and family die that it reminds me that I still have Life and want to accomplish what I can while I can. Autism has pulled me out of my comfort zone and I am so old that I don’t know how much time (or energy) I have left to accomplish what I want to accomplish. I also have to keep on keeping on.

Until next time; May the Light of God surround you. May the Love of God enfold you.

Claudreen Jackson

Since PJ is non-verbal, I have often wondered what his thoughts are. For years, I tried to get him to speak by paying for speech therapy. He also had speech therapy at school. It did not work. PJ is apraxic, which means that he has a speech impediment that he would have to overcome in order to speak. The speech therapists and I finally came to the realization that his speaking was important to us, but not to him.   He did not want to work hard enough to overcome his impediment.  We  quit torturing him (and us) with constant speech therapy.

I have seen the success stories of people with autism who did learn to talk, but PJ is not one of them. Sometimes I can tell what is on his mind because he looks worried or holds his ears in pain, but for the most part it has been a guessing game. He is very good at letting you know what he does NOT want (usually after you have made the mistake of pushing him to do or eat something he doesn’t want).

I’ve said that we are not a success story, but when I look back at his behavior when he was younger, I can see how much he has grown and how far we have come. He used to spend his days jumping, flapping his hands, squealing, walking on furniture and trying to climb the drapes. He was always breaking the drapery rod and drapes were always on the floor, along with whatever he had cleared off the tables so that he could walk on them.

When he was jumping and flapping and squealing, I could not stand watching him. I would take his arms and hold them to his side and stop him from jumping. Then I read “Sunrise” by Barry Kaufman, who said that we should “resonate” with our autistic person by mirroring their behavior. So I started jumping, squealing and flapping and asking PJ “Why are we doing this?” PJ did not like my autistic behavior any more than I liked his, so he would hold my hands to my side and stop me from jumping. He showed me what his thoughts were about this behavior and soon stopped it.

Barry Kaufman is another of my heroes. He expanded on the book “Sunrise” by creating the Option Institute in Massachusetts to train parents and therapists in his methods of working with people with autism. The training is far too expensive for most of us, so I never really considered it as one of my options, but I did use some of his techniques, such as mirroring.

I want to include two more poems by David Eastham, the apraxic, non-verbal autistic man who was on the lower end of the autism spectrum. His condition was similar to PJ’s so, I like to think that his thoughts are also PJ’s. David was the first person on the lower end  of the spectrum that I knew of who was able to share his thoughts.  David’s thoughts had a great impact on me.

Mothers

Good mothers like you / loving kind judge, you.  /  Mum could I love hope too.

Understand reason that I love you / I love you. /         You try  try / yes, you really do  Please love stay true /      Your ever old  David.

Teachers

They are among the angels / that a person knows.      There / you see I’ve been there  Touching early souls.

Teach a person kindness /  Your way is best by far /  Question your reasons / to help a kid become a star.

Until next time; May the Presence of God comfort you; May the Love of God enfold you.

Claudreen jackson

I just lost another family member, a half brother, who along with Pervis and my father were three men that I could always count on. My father and brother were emotional and handyman support. My father was also support with PJ. Pervis was financial and emotional support.  He was also my mentor, pushing and prodding me in my writing. He did not live to see me writing on a consistent basis, which was what he always wanted .  They were my personal unsung heroes.

One of the dictionary definitions of hero is “renowned for exceptional courage and fortitude”.  If you are the parent of a child with autism, you might not be renowned, but you do possess exceptional courage and fortitude, or you are developing it.  Parents of children with autism and other disabilities were my first heroes. From them, I learned how to be an advocate for my child.

Thanks to parent training workshops, I also learned that we need to develop coping strategies. When our children were diagnosed in the ’70s and ’80s,  we were the first group of parents whose children were not placed in institutions.  We were adrift and had to figure things out on our own because the community supports that were supposed to help were nonexistent. I hope things are better now. I do know that there are more services for people with autism now.

I was a part of PET, (Parent Education and Training). One of the most important things that I learned from PET was that  we needed short term coping strategies for crisis situations and long term coping for day to day challenges. If you have a child with autism, you understand that you need both. PET was created by a parent to help other parents and I was honored to be a part of it. It was one of a few “Parents Helping Parents” organizations that were formed during the ’80s. Let me know if  Parents Helping Parents organizations still exist or if there is a need for them.

Many professionals were also unsung heroes. I would not have made it without help, guidance and information from teachers, therapists, doctors, etc. From them, I learned that my son was worth my time and effort. I learned that though he could not be “cured”,  he could improve his behaviors and  he was capable of learning some basic functions and how to follow directions.

There was a type of professional who looked at us parents as if we were the reason our child was having difficulties. They could make us feel incompetent and useless. Especially with autism, it was thought that the parent caused the disability. I felt very guilty to have done this to my son. I hope that autism moms today don’t have to go through that.

I want to include a couple of poems from David Eastham, another unsung hero. David was a non-verbal, autistic and apraxic young man who was using a communication board until he was given a mini-computer. He then started writing poems which were published in a booklet titled “Understand”, in 1985. He lived in ottawa, Canada and was one of the first non-verbal people with severe autism to communicate his thoughts. He has since passed away, but his words taught us that even people with severe autism have thoughts that they may not be able to express.

People

I like people, interesting people / I person too, you see / I’m personable, kind and loving / I’m young, too, unusual me.

In My Mind

I try to pretend I’m / normal as humanly possible / In my mind. / I try to go to teaching / In my mind. / Try my best / In my mind. /  Go for my license / In my mind.  Get married / In my mind. /                       Hope my dreams can come true.

Until next time; May peace and love surround you.

Claudreen Jackson

For so many years, I thought that having a son with autism had ruined my life. Now I know that it changed my life. It interrupted my life, but it didn’t ruin my life. I still have life, but at 70+ years, I don’t know how much life I have left so I want to thank some of my heroes while I am still able. My heroes helped me to adjust to the changes in my life and I am forever grateful for the part they played in bringing me back to life.

When I was mentally and physically exhausted from dealing with autism, I read a book called “Healing Gifts Of The Spirit” by Agnes Sanford. She said that inside us is a little “pilot light” that never goes out. When we are depressed or ill or tired, we may feel that we have no light, but our pilot light is capable of growing into a flame again. This is echoed in the words of one of the Spinners’ songs, “A tiny spark will remain / and sparks turn into flame / and love will burn once again”.  These are words from “I’ll Be Around”.  Pervis believed in these words during the years that we were separated and he turned out to be right.

Another hero that helped me is Dr.  Wayne Dyer. In “Your Erroneous Zones”, Dr. Dyer said that you can control your feelings because you can change your thoughts about your feelings.  You can take charge of yourself through your thoughts and actions. I could see that PJ couldn’t control his feelings and actions, so one of us had to. I said that I had to adjust to him because he couldn’t adjust to me, but he has adjusted far better than I would have predicted. I don’t know if he has changed his feelings, but he has changed his actions.

In her book, “Lessons In Living”,  Susan Taylor said that we are God’s workers in the field and we have to be careful what we send out into the Universe because what we send out is what we get back. She said that “the challenges and obstacles you encounter in life are the lessons that help you discover your inner resources of love, faith and strength.” That without life’s challenges, we might not ever discover our resourcefulness. (If I had to choose a challenge in life, it would not have been autism, but I didn’t get to make the choice).

I could not talk about heroes without mentioning Temple Grandin. I read her books “Emergence, Labeled Autism” and “Thinking In Pictures”. I have also attended her workshops and talked to her when she comes to Michigan. What an inspiration she is! Temple helped me to see things from PJ’s perspective. Because of her explaining her hypersensitive hearing, I understood why PJ always kept his hands over his ears. Temple said that she wears ear plugs, but they didn’t work with PJ so he wears headphones. She also helped me to understand why PJ liked to get under the mattress. I hope you have seen her movie, “Temple Grandin”.   I have seen her since the movie came out and she is very pleased with it.

Because of my heroes, I decided to have my say about autism. One of my heroes said that “if there is something you genuinely need to say, there is someone who genuinely needs to hear it”.  They said to ask yourself the question, “If not now-then when? If not me-then who?”  After 36 years of living with a son handicapped by autism, I had much on my mind that I wanted to say. There are some things that you want said  and you find out that you have to say them yourself. “If it is to be, it is up to me.”

Until next time; May the Love of God enfold you; May the Power of God protect you.

Claudreen Jackson

I have had the hardest time getting wordpress to accept my passwords. I have to keep changing it. If one of my grandchildren were here, they would have solved the problem immediately. Also, now I know why I said I would never get floors sanded and varnished again. I was not able to get to my computer for a week. I wished for a laptop, except I had one and it was stolen.

Anyhow, I wanted to mention some of my heroes. I mentioned some of  them in “Inspired By Autism” but  their words bear repeating.

In his book, “The Prophet”, Kahlil Gibran wrote something that has comforted me greatly when dealing with PJ. “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you, but not from you. You can give them your love, but not your thoughts.” Reading that quote helped me to quit apologizing for PJ’s existence. I gave him birth, but God gave him life. He is entitled to his little space on the planet just like the rest of us.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale also helped me. In the “Power Of Positive Thinking”, Dr. Peale said that you can change your life by changing your attitude. He said that the facts are not as important as your attitude about the facts. You can’t change what happens to you, but you can change how you feel about what happens to you. Once your perception of a situation changes, the situation itself changes. In his little booklet, “Thought Conditioners”, he gives you specific scriptures and techniques to teach you how to change your attitude. Dr Peale said that God created you and He can constantly and automatically re-create you. He helped me to change my attitude about autism.

In her book, “Return to Love”, Marianne Williamson tells us to forgive those who hurt us. Forgiveness is just as healing for the forgiver as for the one who needs to be forgiven. That book was the catalyst for me forgiving my husband after years of nursing my hurts. I felt a load lift that I didn’t even know I was carrying. We eventually ended up getting back together. God is still working Miracles in the world!

In his book, “The Greatest Miracle In The World”, Og Mandino says of love, “Love is a gift on which no return is demanded. To love for fulfillment, satisfaction or pride is no love. If love is not returned, it will still flow back to you and soften and purify your heart.” He says that we are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. I did not hope to get love back from PJ, but he did learn to return love.

I constantly mention Og Mandino when I am speaking. His books have had a great impact on me. Imagine my surprise when I was reading one of his books and he mentioned meeting me. What an honor! The book is “Secrets of Success and Happiness” and is his journal entries that were published. He is no longer living, but he managed to excite me from heaven after eighteen years.

I hope you have some Heroes in your life. We sure need them. I hope you have someone to give you a spoonful of comfort. I hope you can manage to share a spoonful of comfort with someone who needs it. A spoonful is the bare minimum of sustenance that we can give and you don’t have to write a book or form a foundation to give it.

Until next time; May the Love of God enfold you; May the Power of God protect you.

Claudreen Jackson

Gentle Teaching is the name of a book written by Dr. John McGee.  Dr McGee was a psychologist at the University of Nebraska Medical School who was a pioneer in the more humane treatment of people with psychiatric and behavior disorders. In fact, Dr. McGee referred to these people as having behavior challenges instead of disorders. He was one of the first people to use the term caregiver instead of caretaker.

In 1987,  MSAC  (Michigan Society for Autistic Citizens, now ASM) sent three teams of parents and professionals to Omaha  to learn Dr. McGee’s techniques.  There were five of us in each team and each team spent a week in Omaha at the University of Nebraska Psychiatric Institute. I was the only parent in my team, along with four professionals. This trip had a great impact on me and changed the way that I related to my son.

Prior to the 1960s and 1970s, people with psychiatric and behavior challenges were warehoused in huge custodial institutions  without getting much in the way of treatment. They were either abused, neglected, heavily drugged or restrained.  The Community Mental Health Act was passed in 1963 and was the beginning of more humane treatment. Dr McGee gave us strategies and techniques for teaching and bonding with challenging people who had previously been abused, drugged or restrained.

Dr McGee taught us that we had to “define our posture” when relating to our people with challenging behaviors. He divided caregivers into four categories, overprotective, authoritarian, cold-mechanical, and solidarity seeking.  He told us to decide which we wanted to be.  We all chose solidarity seeking which meant that we would try to bond with the challenging person. This was a new way of thinking and relating.

He said that if we didn’t decide ahead of time, the challenging behaviors could cause the caregiver to lose control and become one of the postures that they didn’t want to be.  There should be mutual interaction between the caregiver and the challenging person and it was the responsibility of the caregiver to establish this relationship. We were also asked to clarify our values. Do we value that person as a human being? Is that person worth our time?

He taught us about structuring the environment, environmental triggers, redirection, reward and teaching in silence. I won’t try to tell you everything that our week consisted of, but it shaped my relationship with PJ after I returned home and I still use his techniques. I don’t know if I would have lasted this long without Dr. McGee. When I left Omaha, I had a new confidence that maybe I could survive my son. I had always been living on the edge of panic, but that was slowly changing  and  once I became more gentle, so did PJ.

In “Inspired Bt Autism”,  I listed some of my Heroes, the people that kept me going and helped me to adjust to a person handicapped by autism. I forgot to include Dr. John McGee.  I owe him a great debt of thanks.   One of my favorite scriptures is Romans 12:2 “Be ye transformd by the renewing of your mind”.  Dr. McGee gave me part of  the “how to” for the transformation. I  also used some of his strategies and techniques in my classroom when I was teaching.

Along with Dr. McGee, I want to thank all the professional therapists, doctors, teachers, etc. who work with us and our children. We could not do it without you. I am thankful for the humane and caring treatment.

Until next time; May the Love of God enfold you; May the Power of God protect you.

Claudreen Jackson

PJ loves to sleep around. He has never seen a bed that he doesn’t like. Or a couch. He sleeps in his bed some nights, my bed when he naps during the day and the bed in the guest room on alternate nights. ( So much for me keeping the guest room ready for guests). Of course, I have very few guests, because most people would rather stay somewhere without an autistic person in residence.  Every once in a while, a relative or a friend from out of town will be brave enough to stay with us.

He sleeps on every couch, including the one that I consider my “good” couch. He carries his cover with him when he chooses a couch. There is a small love seat couch in the basement and he has even tried that one, but he is so tall that he was uncomfortable and that couch is not in his rotation. He takes his shoes off the minute he gets home from his day program, finds something to eat and then finds a place to lay his head.

When he had bunk beds, he would alternate, one night in the lower bunk, one night in the upper bunk. He likes so much sameness and routine in his life that his sleeping habits surprised me. If you are the parent of a child with autism, you know how hard it is to stop them from doing something that they really want to do, so he has freedom of choice.

One day when he was a teenager, he had disappeared. I knew that he had not left the house, but I could not find him. I looked in every room and in the basement, but he was not to be found. Just short of panic, I decided to look everywhere again. I found him in one of the beds. He was not under the cover, he was under the mattress, so it was easy to miss his the first time around.

His being under the mattress  alarmed his father and would have alarmed me if it were not for Temple Grandin. She said that she needed the deep pressure on her body, which is why she invented her squeeze box. She used to get under the pillows on the couch and have her sister sit on her before her invention. I am sure that you know who Temple Grandin is if you have a person with autism in your life.

He often disappeared under the mattress. When he would finally get up, his body would be soaking wet with sweat and he would smell like vinegar. I believe that some chemical or hormone got released when he gave himself these treatments.  He had found his own way to make himself feel better. By the time he turned 22 or 23, he stopped this behavior, but every once in a while, he still has that vinegary smell.

He loves hotels. When we were traveling more, he was in the bed as soon as we checked in. The bed and the swimming pool were all that he needed. Since 911, I have not traveled with him. What a nightmare it would be to have to go through airport security with him. He is big and intimidating looking even when he is calm.

I don’t often take him to visit anyone, but on the rare occasions that we would visit my mother or my daughter, PJ would select a bed to get in. There he would stay for the duration of the visit, which actually made it easier to visit. He does not like a lot of chatter or laughter, so we were free to chat without him.

He gives a whole new meaning to the term “sleeping around”.  He has been the greatest education of my life along with the greatest challenge.

Until next time; May the Power of God protect you: May the Love of God enfold you.

Claudreen Jackson

I’ve had to keep changing my password to get to make a new post and that slows me down so please forgive me for taking so long to add a new post.

Those of you who’ve read “Inspired By Autism” have already read this story, but I am including it for those who haven’t read the book because it made such a great impact on me and is an example of how my faith has seen me through during my life with PJ. I feel that God has taken care of us because I have been totally incompetent at times during this autism ordeal.

PJ loves french fries and I cook them for him often. I felt guilty about french fries being such a big part of his diet until I read an article in a magazine about foods that help people with autism. The article stated that potatoes and pasta were foods that increased the level of seratonin in the brain and made people with autism feel and act better. No wonder he ate so many fries! I felt better about cooking fries and relaxed into cooking them as often as he wanted, sometimes two or three times a day. I cooked them so often that it became automatic and I became careless.

One day, as I was heating oil for his fries, I became distracted in another room and forgot that the oil was heating. When I returned to the kitchen, the pan was on fire. A “typical” child would have been alarmed and told his mother, but PJ was just standing there looking at the fire. (An example of a person with autism not recognizing danger).

I thought that I could remove the pan a few feet from the stove to the sink. Even though I was using a pot holder, the pan was too hot to hold and I dropped it. A wall of flame erupted. I ran to get PJ so we could get out of the house. He is bigger and stronger them I am and does not move unless he wants to and I did not have time to convince him.

To my surprise, he ran out of the side door. I did not have to save him. He saved himself. He did recognize the danger!

I was thankful that we’d gotten out, but I was so scared. What about all the damage to the kitchen? I would have to go to a neighbor’s house to call the fire department. I looked through the window to see how bad it was and I did not see any fire. I did not see any smoke.

Cautiously entering the house, I still did not see any fire. Not only was there no fire, once I cleaned up the spill, there was no evidence of a fire at all. There was not even a scorch on the floor or the wall. I found out  later that the tile was flame retardant, but I still feel that God was looking out for us.  “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe”. (John 4:48).

We now cook fries in an electric deep fryer and PJ mostly cooks his own fries. He hovers and watches until they are just the way he wants them. He would never leave the kitchen when he is cooking and I have learned my lesson. I remain in the kitchen when I am cooking, too.

Until next time: May the Power of  God protect you; May the Love of God enfold you.

Claudreen Jackson