I thought I would start with introducing myself to you all. I am 65 years old, wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, grandmother-in-law, non-binary, home owner, car driver, home maker, cat, chicken and fish slave, dreamer, company owner, cake maker, organiser, gardener, carer, not an academic, autistic, dyslexic, dyspraxic, with ADHD, enabler, holder of a Bachelor’s degree, undertaker of a Masters by Research, Oh! and bossy. I am sure there are other things, but I would not want to overwhelm anyone 😊
I have held down many jobs, from working on a market stall whilst still at school, on leaving I worked for the Ladybird clothing company in Research and Development, with aspirations to go on to university to become a colourist, but baby number one came along and back in those distant days women were expected to stay at home once they had children. Whilst raising my three little darlings I had several part-time jobs, some in factories making hairdryers and mud flaps, in an office, Woolworths, to name just a few.
Being dyslexic I believed myself to be ‘thick and stupid’ so when I landed a job as a Dr’s receptionist, I thought I had reached the highest of the high. Four years later I was sacked for carrying out a Dr’s instructions to the letter. Only finding out later that I was supposed to interpret his demand to ‘sort out’ the mistake another, younger receptionist had made. ☹
I then went self-employed into the telecoms business and loved being my own boss, eventually being sponsored by two London based business men to set up a much bigger company. This I ran for nine years with a PA and staff before selling it on and starting CoomberSewell Enterprises LLP with my now wife.
When Jane and I first met I already had custody of my eldest grandson, who she was happy to take on not knowing that in years to come his husband would be joining our home along with his brother. These three young men are all on the autistic spectrum but all very different.
In my family, from my mum down, there are fifty-four descendants, and sixty-six percent of us are on the autistic spectrum. You would think that I would know just about everything there is to know about autism but the more I research this condition the more I discoverer that I have only scratched the surface. As the saying goes, ‘when you’ve met one autistic, you’ve only met one autistic’.