I have just read on another thread that spacemouse has a son who is autistic. I have a son who is an achondroplasia dwarf. He is a tenacious little son of a gun who just wants to play hockey in the worst way. Unfortunately this will never happen as he can easily suffer a catostrophic spinal cord injury. Trains is one thing that we do together and though not his first choice of things to do he loves to run them. This may be a little of topic but I was wondering how many other forum members out there have kids, grandkids, nieces or nephews or others with challenges that spend time at the layout with you.
This is my nephew, Jonah, and me running trains. Jonah has cerebral palsy - his brain is fine, but it’s not connected to his body like most folks. His right hand is pretty good, but he really can’t get much response from anything else - just jerky motion - and he really can’t speak.
Anyway, Jonah loves to run trains - he likes them to move very slowly (which is just alright with me and my shays). When we operate, I’m the brakeman and he’s got the throttle - and we both laugh a lot.
My grandson John, now 12 years old, was very sick as a baby - s o b in the hospital gave him a staph infection that became scalded skin syndrome, which is almost always fatal. He was oxygen deprived and weighed only 12 lbs at 6 months. He’s now 5’4" and weighs 120lbs, so he’s caught up in size. He does have ADD, motor skill problems, and some learning problems as well. At about 1 year, he would not even watch TV for more than 5 minutes at a time - until I bought him “Kids Love Toy Trains”. He sat without moving for 45 minutes watching the whole video!! Aside from the 4x8, the wife & I have taken hm to Steamtown, Strasburg, Northlandz, and about everything else train related in the northeast. He’s probably THE best thing in my life! [:)]
There is a few of us up here in the London ON region who have been going to a fellow’s house to help build up a set for a child with CP. It is a very neat way to contribute to your community. If you look I think you will find someone to help…[swg]
I had a son who had Leukemia. He died over a year ago. He absolutely loved trains. We spent countless hrs putting together the really hard FSM kits. In fact George Sellios invited us to come down for the day to be with him and his layout. I will never forget the train times we had together.
Our grandson has been living with us since May, he just turned 2 last month. The Doctors et al aren’t sure yet if he’s mildly autistic or if he has other issues, but he definitely was lagging behind in some areas. His mother is my wife’s youngest daughter. She’s been a meth addict for about 5 years now. Blake resulted from her getting drunk/high and having unprotected sex with a neighbor who has had problems with a violent temper… in fact soon after Blake was conceived he went to prison for assaulting another girl and was just recently released. Blake’s Mom spent part of the time she was pregnant with Blake in the county workhouse for possession of drug paraphenalia, and the reason we’ve had him all this time is she was arrested in May for dealing drugs.
So like I say Blake may be autistic, or may be suffering some affects of having a Mom who was a user and/or having a Dad with personality disorders. He seems to be improving a lot though, going to daycare every day and being around other kids and in a structured environment helps a lot. We read to him a lot and he loves that.
When UP 3985 was here my wife took him down to see it. Before that he didn’t really know what a train was, but seeing the big steam engine (and mainline freights going by it) really got his attention. Now he likes to watch train videos with me. When the train is approaching on the video he’ll look at me and go “Tain!!”, then when the whistle blows he goes “Wooo Wooo” along with it. As the train passes he’ll wave at it and say “Bye Bye Tain!!” Sometimes he’ll fall asleep in my lap watching a train video.
Hello How many of your helpers are operators,rail fans or builders ? If they are builders lets see some of there work. Do you put there ideas in the layout to? What are there favorite trains? Have a nice day Frank
Hello Lou that’s cool. I just love the imagination kids have. I can watch my little girl play for hours and most of the time I play to. It looks like he has enough firepower to keep that dinosaur in line. Have a fun day Frank
Well here’s my little guy. Indiana Jones at halloween. He has had many major surgeries and spent many weeks in the ICU at B.C. Childrens Hospital. He goes in for another 8 Hr. operation on his spine on Dec. 12th. Cheers to all of us who need to go the extra mile and thanks for your stories.
