J L Appleton

Jon's Story J L Appleton

Your Jonathan is useless, he'll never be any good!A teacher proclaims, words that turned my life upside down, words from a short well-built woman, with long blonde hair, sitting back in her chair, a teacher who looked me straight in the face, threw her hands in the air; and said those words!Hospitals and Doctors. Suddenly a child is a special needs person, why?Parents who struggle for over twenty years with emotions and social services to find the best life for their son, their middle child who brings sadness, heartache and struggle, as well as 100% unconditional love. In years gone by, people had been locked away if they were different. Of course today we have so many more choices to offer these people but finding them is not always that easy and the funding often has to be fought for. There will never be a quiet moment in our life because you just never know what Jon will do next!What would Jon achieve in life? That was a mum's fear, for him, for many years. Over which time my confidence subsided; my self-esteem reached low points and the hurt? Well, I locked that away, but it would build and eventually tell on my health. People often never saw the real me, I wouldn't let them see. Jonathan has now turned 44 years of age; is he useless? The teacher said he was at 5 years old!Jonathan, well this is Jon's story told by me, his mum.