My daughter’s BF Cindy has a son named Marshall. Marshall was born quite prematurely. When I first saw him when he came home from the hospital at about 5 weeks old his little head fit in the palm of my hand like a baseball. He was tiny. As an infant and through his toddler years Marshall had difficulty eating. Everything that did go in his mouth was pretty much spit back up. Marshall spent a lot of time in speech therapy which was not so much to help him speak but to get his little throat to work to swallow food. At about age three or so Marshall was diagnosed as autistic. When Marshall started school he was assigned a personal aid which to this day he still has. Marshall has many of the classic traits of a person with autism. He only eats certain foods regardless of the meal. I have had several Thanksgiving dinners at Cindy’s house and sat next to Marshall who would only eat a toaster waffle or maybe a roll. He will eat french fries and just a few other foods. Marshall has social interaction issues and if you didn’t know that he was autistic you would think he was a rude child who may have ADD.
But all of this is not what makes Marshall “special“. What makes Marshall special is the absolutely unselfish, caring, loving thing he decided to do to help another kid. Over a year ago Marshall somehow heard about Locks of Love and decided to grow his hair so he could donate it to make wigs for kids. Not something your average nine or ten year old boy would think about doing. Right?
I saw Cindy’s comment on Facebook yesterday and it made me think of what a brave thing this was for Marshall to do. Brave I say because I am sure more than once some bully made a crack about Marshall looking like a girl. Kids can be so cruel.
Cindy said “My beautiful boy grew his hair out for Locks of Love and finally had enough. It all came off yesterday!”
In a response to a comment about the photos on FB Cindy wrote “He has a few sensory issues, so for him to even grow his hair that long is HUGE.”
Put the hair in a ponytail and whack it off.
Buzz the rest of the hair off. Then the next step is to mail the ponytail to Locks of Love so that a financially disadvantage kid can get a wig.
YOU ROCK MARSHALL!
Filed under: "Good causes", friends | Tagged: autism, donate, kids, wigs | 6 Comments »
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