No one knew about Asperger’s when I was growing up, so for sure no-one could have ever diagnosed my Grandmother. I reminisce about both of us in “Unforgiving: Memoir of an Asperger Teen”.
I have my Grandmother’s diaries. They play a crucial part in my memoir. Grandma’s diaries helped me with the timeline, because she used the 5 year kind.
Recently my daughter who is also an Aspie, was working on a project for her photography class. She asked for certain old photos and any old diary content that I thought might be relevant.
I gave her photocopies of some entries, and also some diaries.
When she returned them to me she pulled out a little notebook and said, “Whose writing is this?”
I told her it was my grandmother’s, my father’s mother, her great-grandmother, Maude Esme Adam.
“It’s like seeing my brain spread on the page,” she told me. “I have always thought just like this, always been fascinated by certain scientific articles and trivia. When I started reading this, I felt like I knew this person. I knew how their mind worked.”
Amazing the way we discover connections with our past!
Margaret Jean 