Description

Anne Clinard Barnhill's cousin Becky was created in 1958, well before many people had even heard the word autism. Identified as having "mental disturbance," Becky was exposed for a lot of her youth to well-meaning but useless attempts at "rehab" or "remedy," as well as extended periods in establishments from her family. Painting a vivid picture of growing up in small town America throughout the Sixties, Barnhill explains her brother's and her own painful childhood encounters with empathy and integrity. Experiencing the divorce from her sister, the awkwardness of men' responses to her sister's inconsistent conduct and the mental and economic struggles the household experienced consequently of Becky's situation, Anne nonetheless discovered that her sister had anything that "regular" everyone was not able to provide.