Louise Towart

LouiseThere is a little bit of ‘poetic licence’ used in this poem, but basically, it is an accurate depiction of my family’s experience with Autism. I often felt as though I was sinking, not swimming, early on. No, having a nursing background didn’t help! Eventually, I found & built on my support network, began educating myself and gathering tools to deal with this ‘Autism thing’. I definitely see the benefits of the therapy my son has done over the years. Despite facing a number of major life changes over the last couple of years, this family is not just ‘coping’, but living pretty well most of the time.

Before the internet was entrenched in our way of life, I was an avid letter writer. At one point in recent years when the stress life was really taking its toll on me, I was encouraged to start writing again. I grabbed one of the kids’ unused school exercise books and amidst a lot of waffle, poetry appeared on the page.

Some of these pieces are on my Cyan Empress Facebook page. Surprisingly to me, folk sent lovely messages of thanks, completely relating to the poems as something they were going through, or had at some point. We are all not so different at times, are we?

I’m now a single mother of three gorgeous children, living and working at our close friend’s computer sales/repair business in Singleton, NSW, Australia. The next few years sees my son tackle high school and me a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy Honours degree at the University of Newcastle. Exciting times ahead!