Because Mari’s inner dare-devil loved to dance on roofs or go dancing in the street.
Mari had one of the most carefree attitudes of anyone I knew. She had no fear, or understanding, of trying something she shouldn’t.
When Keith was stationed at the DeKalb recruiting station, we lived in a four bedroom townhouse. At the time I had my office desk in our living room. It faced the window.
One day I was sitting at it doing my business and all of a sudden I saw a foot appear on the roof from the second story right above our front door. I swear my heart fell down through my stomach and hit the floor. Instantaneously my heart pulsated rapid fire.
I don’t remember the last time had run so fast out the door before. I frantically called up to Mari to stay right there. I had to act quickly. While trying to keep an eye on her while knocking on someone’s door prove to be interesting.
A young guy came out and I explained the situation. So he stay right below her in case she fell and I went up to her room and put my head out the open window. It a minute or two to get Mari to come back toward me. In the end she did. I may have had a heart attack that day, but Mari went right back to her normal self. No clue the scare she just put her mama through. She had a carefree spirit which would lead to her dare devilish behaviors as time went on.
There were a few more terrifying things she did and scared the heck out of me. For Mari she could do anything.
That would be terrifying. Kids have no fear what so ever. It is amazing any parents make it through child rearing without having a heart attack.
You are right, kids do have no fear at all, and then you add autism to the mix and you have an explosive situation waiting to happen. I just smile and shake my head now when I think back at all the times my heart skipped a beat due to a scare for something Mari did (i.e. her dancing on the roof every time).
Oh my gosh! I guess that’s one way to discover it’s time for a stronger roof.
You could say that. Fortunately Mari was a itty-bitty little thing. Sometimes I felt like we needed to put a fence around the top just to keep her safe. I think the other thing I was thankful for is that the roof at least was almost flat as it used to be the garage roof.
You had my heart racing too! My goodness! Love the diversity of topics I’m finding through the A to Z challenge!
Thank you Janice. My little girl had a tendancy to do that to people. As for diversity, you are so right. It’s been fun to go visiting so many of the blogs who are participating and seeing what they are going to write about that let for the day.
Yikes! Terrifying experience for any mother, whether or not her child is autistic. I can only imagine how much more frightened you must have been!
I was and I can still remember every death-defying heartbeat I had rapidly going as I tried to get her off the roof. I look back now and can smile at the memory of my once unscared little angel.
Kids are so innocent and fearless – they have no idea of the terror they’re causing for their parents. I remember getting a call from the staff at a summer day camp to tell me that my son had taken off his water wings and jumped into the deep end of the swimming pool. He was fine – the staff maybe less so!