I want a rose for Christmas. (For Thomas Dolan)

You were both in kindergarten.I did this once. I wanted to go to an Autism conference in Florida. I did with Tony Atwood as the guest speaker which turned out to be fortuitous as he counseled me for free after you were abused in  nursery school, Ca.You were not the only one, as if that matters. I only had one course in graduate psychology at that point in time. You tried to tell me without words and I will never forgive myself for taking so long to get it.They made you stand up and sit down, they covered your mouth with their hands when you spoke out. I hope not to you, but to others mustard was shoved down throats, lemon juice or vinegar sprayed into faces and so much more.
You had PTSD for a year in kindergarten. I will never forget this.
Years later, I worked with a child who had gone through this and never learned to speak. Her biting behavior out of fear scared everyone away. I truly knew that this was unexpressed PTSD, and not Autism.

It was almost Christmas before I left and Co, I knew exactly what you wanted in some respects.
Ca, You asked only for a rose from Santa. I was so afraid that the plane would crash or something and that you would not have that fresh rose on X-mas morning that I told several people to get one in case I did not come back.
Christmas morning came and Santa had stored the rose in the refrigerator in the garage.
Oh, you looked at the presents and said," Where is Rose?" And then I figured out that Rose was a doll in a catalogue. It was kind of too late, until your Grammy called Tom.
Tom, you were going through World War III, at that point with cancer. You made the effort to get well enough to call Ca. You were her Santa that year. I answered the phone and you had nothing to do with me.You just wanted Ca. You told her that Rose had been in your sleigh and had fallen out of it in Africa and would be delivered as soon as Prancer recovered from his sprained ankle, Dasher recuperated from his sore back,and Rudolph's nose could shine again after his cold went away.
 True to your word, Rose appeared one sunny afternoon next to the fireplace.( This was 14 years ago.) Forever blessings from mine to yours.