While all the attention lately has been on Will because of his new job, new apartment, and new adventures away from home, there is still mothering to be done close at hand.
Mary, Will’s older sister, has been looking for work since December 2010. She faces more barriers to employment than Will. Her autism is more apparent, she wants to work in accounting, and her spelling is poor. So far, she cannot drive. Later this month, she will be tested again by the rehabilitation hospital to see if she can take driver’s training. When she tested for it three years ago, she was prohibited from taking driver’s training. She gets interviews at least twice a month, but never gets beyond the interview.
Still, Mary is hopeful. She keeps applying. She keeps going to interview practice with a local Asperger’s specialist. She keeps volunteering two afternoons a week at one of the local homeless shelters in accounts receivable. And she has a phone interview with the Red Cross next week doing the same sort of work with donations that she is doing at the homeless shelter. Pray.
Will’s younger sister, Patty, finished her final exams last week and is looking for work this week as well. She really feels the urgency this year because her financial aid package is not as generous as it has been.
There is plenty of encouraging and mothering still to be done on the home front.