Stories from Caregivers: Frieda from MICHIGAN
MI
Frieda
FROM MICHIGAN
This story is about my baby brother Tomas. Tomas is 25 years old and suffers from ADD, ADHD and is on the Autism Spectrum. He is very intelligent but mostly non communicative. We were gifted a laptop computer and a tablet that he can play on and occupy himself with and it is a wonderful tool for someone with his disorder. He plays Tetris style games and never loses. He can see patterns ahead of time and clears the board in a flash. Mom and dad purchased a huge house and renovated it into a very nice living unit that gives us all our own space with privacy but can be opened up with doorways when we want to open our personal spaces to combine with the other living units. Tomas has his own efficiency style place with a fridge, microwave, toaster, small kitchen and large bedroom and living room combined plus has his own bathroom. I have a larger space with full kitchen, full bath, 2 bedrooms and large living room and dining room with a large family style table for when I do the cooking. Mom and dad have almost the same setup as me but they have 3 bedrooms and access to the basement as well. I have access to the attic but that's just for storage. Tomas likes to spend most of his time with me, watching me groom dogs in my mobile pet grooming unit. It's basically a converted RV that sits in our garage or driveway and people bring their pets to me but sometimes I go to them if they are homebound. Tomas loves to accompany me on these outings. He also has a gameboy that he plays that has pet style games. Like pet groomer, littlest pet shop, Pet Vet and some other ones. He always gets everything right on those too. The pets take to Tomas very well and he is so calm and gentle with them when they go up to him for affection and petting. If Tomas didn't have his disorders I like to think that he would have been my partner or maybe even a Vet.
