ABSTRACT
In his careers, the author focused on children and their families; it was the children with special needs or histories of trauma that liberated his affective side. Mikey, five, went mute after finding his father dead, a suicide. William’s art reproduced the severe abuse he suffered at two. A second grader’s behavioral problems led to a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy. Not only did the children prepare him for parenthood, they also were prepping him for the discovery of his grandmother’s early life traumas. They were getting him ready to fall in love with the grandmother he never met.
