Giving Special Needs Children a voice all over the world!

After we lost our eldest son tragically last year, the kids and I were sitting down with a couple of close friends talking about Aaron and how he used to look at people with such disdain if they stared at him for dribbling, or because he looked ‘different’.   How I would turn to Aaron and say ‘language Aaron’ as you could tell by they look on his face, what he was thinking was definitely in the realms of obscene. 

Years ago the kids and used to play a game, we would say “what do you think Aaron would say if he could speak” and I can honestly say that the sayings got wilder by the minute, and Aaron would be laughing his head off; the more offensive the saying…the harder he laughed, and if they threatened violence in any way, he’d be there almost bouncing out of his wheelchair beside himself laughing..

Even though we were all just sitting around talking, we realised that the truth is; there is a very real message there.  People stare at our children and look disgusted or full of pity (even worse) and we want to give these children a voice. So we have decided to set up this company that prints slogans onto t-shirts just for special needs children and adults. We have called it ‘heaven’s special child’ (one of Aaron’s favourite poems) ‘special t-shirts for special kids’.  As that is exactly what our children are!!

The shirts look great in print and we have been trying them out on a few kids we know and they all love them. Orders are flooding in and we are going to go onto baseball caps, tracksuits, hoodies and sweatshirts.

We know there is a market for these t-shirts, and it is a way of making people realise that they can’t stare and be derogative to our children. If it seems to you that we are trying to take on the world with regards to their attitude to children and adults with special needs…then that’s fine, because it is exactly what we are going to do.

I still can only get three or four hours sleep a night, so in between helping other families fund raise for dolphin swims, being involved in the kids’ schools, attending dozens of appointments for Deion, writing four books…oh yeah and I’m doing a psychology degree!!!   We want to get this business up and running and give our kids a voice. 

Long gone are the days when people with disabilities feel inferior or want to fade into the background.  We know that our children want to stand up and be heard.  So for the people who can’t stick up for themselves we want to do this for them.

We want children and adults with even the slightest disability all over the world to have their say, to be proud of the disability and uniqueness, and we want them all wearing Aarons special t-shirts to show it. We want a large part of the profits to go to charity, especially the wish foundations that help children with terminal illnesses like the ones that helped us, as they are a real lifeline.

Life is not the easiest at the moment as you can well imagine.  We all miss Aaron more than we thought it was possible to miss another person, and anyone who ever had a hug from him feels the same.  Mainly because his hugs were more of a cross between a half nelson and the Heimlich manoeuvre!!!!!  But really because Aaron truly was special in every way.

So we are trying to go on with life in Aaron’s spirit, someone as incredible as Aaron needs a legacy left in his name….so that’s exactly what we will do.  We fought for him all his life, and now we will fight for all people with special needs; because he would expect nothing less from us.

Aaron didn’t just meet life head on…he wrestled it to the ground and beat it into submission.  People saw limited when they looked at him, but it is truly the least accurate word you could use to describe someone like Aaron.I am pretty determined; Aaron certainly got his stubborn streak from me, even though I won’t admit that to my husband if I can help it.

Sally-Anne Stephenson

Copyright © 2006 Sally-Anne Stephenson. All rights reserved.

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