Liam

Some brothers are beyond awesome but mine is beyond that. Liam was my biggest fan from our earliest days, never really seeing my disability. In a way, his ability to love me, in spite of everything, made me normal. He barged into my autism, treating it like it didn’t matter, dragging me out of the fog. Treating us like normal people makes us normal, after all. Liam particularly is able to look beyond the exterior to see people’s hearts. 

When we were little he would literally presume that I was just like him, only unable to speak, and would march around holding my hand, telling our mother what it was that “the brothers” wanted. Often apparently we wanted ice cream. He would decide on our Halloween costumes:  he was Buzz Lightyear, I was Woody. I was King Arthur, he was Sir Lancelot. We could not have been closer.

That may have ultimately saved me, in a way. His persistence in pushing his way into my world kept me grounded. My mother always treated us as equals, never making me feel less. That too made me act as normal as I could.

When I was finally able to talk, my brother and I needed no real shift. Because he had always treated me as a normal guy, it was easy to just start talking.
He has always loved me with his whole heart, and I want him to know that no brother has ever loved theirs more than I do mine.