Dear Connor, I sometimes sit and wonder just how different life would be if the Gods had made you the “standard” of what a young man should be. I wonder if you’d be out all day, playing with your friends. Or chatting up the girls and driving our Mum round the bend! Would you have … Continued
For as long as I can remember, I have been close to my sisters. I’m the youngest of three – it feels like having two best friends who will always look out for me. I was drawn to Sibs because one of my sisters, Joanna, has autism and a learning disability. When Joanna and I … Continued
Guilt…. It’s a feeling defined in the dictionary as ‘the fact of having committed a specified or implied offence or crime’ or ‘making someone feel guilty in order to induce them to do something.’ One of these definitions resonates more with siblings than the other, but where does the guilt from come? Does it come … Continued
An extract from “The Sibling” by Jools Abrams (currently out on submission) Epilogue: Blackpool It is the first day of October, two days shy of my brother’s fifty second birthday, when we find ourselves on holiday again, the first without our parents, and the first time we are sharing a room since childhood. We are … Continued
I’m the only family member for my brother aged 52 with Asperger’s and my mother, aged 88, who has dementia. So, if I can’t see anything about my relationship with my brother as a positive, how do I, as a great believer in the life-changing effects of focusing on positives, find a positive in having … Continued
“The siblings of special needs children are quite special. Absolutely accepting and totally loving, from birth. Someone who is different mentally, and has a different way of seeing the world, is a wonderful trait. It’s a trait I wish there was another way of getting, but there isn’t. And it does involve a degree of … Continued
Sibling Truths Important: This is a personal account that may/may not be reflective of other people’s experiences. There are many times when having a sibling with a disability is hard, life-changing, crippling hard. I feel we don’t speak about this enough. Social media is full of posts of parents celebrating their children’s disabilities, sharing moments … Continued
A sibling relationship is one of the most unique familial relationships out there. It usually outlives any other kind of familial relationship, meaning the impact it can have in shaping an individual’s life can be huge. When you add disability to this, the relationship becomes even more formative, for both parties. I grew up with … Continued
My employer was supportive when I told them I was a carer and, given that my team had all been working remotely from home anyway due to the pandemic, there were no work issues with me working from my mum’s house. I was able to flex my working hours to suit me, so that I … Continued
“A sweet tale of sibling love, told without sentimentality” Summer BrotherBy Jaap Robben, translated from the Dutch by David Doherty (2021); World EditionsReview by Pam Foley, adult sibling. Teenager Brian comes from a dysfunctional family; his parents are divorced and he lives with his conniving father in a trailer home, located in a remote Dutch … Continued