Meu Filho, Meu Mundo

Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love, was one of the many "made-for-TV" and "based on a true story" movies that were so popular in the late 1970's, and I consider it to be one of the best. It is the story of a family dealing with the difficulties of raising an autistic child. The couple already had two young daughters when their son, Raun, was born. While they were excited to finally have a son, the couple became concerned when Raun failed to develop emotionally in the same way that their daughters had. Shortly thereafter, Raun was diagnosed as autistic. He could not form complete sentences and he would spend hours at a time, spinning a china plate on the tile floor, shaking his hands wildly in the air while he watch the plate spin, then starting the process over again...spinning the plate and shaking his hands in the air.

Raun's parents took him to several specialists and considered placing him in a full-time care facility until they discovered that many of these facilities suffered from poor sanitation or experimented with shock-treatment. The couple found this to be very frustrating and disappointing, often blaming themselves for their son's situation. Raun's mother laments, "When I was pregnant with the girls, I would continually ask God to make sure that they were healthy. When Raun was on the way, all I could think to ask was that we have a son."

Finally, the couple decided to develop their own therapy program for their son. With years of hard work, tremendous patience and a seemingly endless capacity for love, Raun's parents and sisters were able to help him find a way out of his autism, and become able to interact with other people in a more "normal" way.

It has been more than 20 years since "Son-Rise" appeared on television. But the moving story of a family's determination to help their son, continues to be an inspiration to me.