Alan's Friend...

Today started off just like any ordinary Saturday. David got up and showered and dressed then got Alan up and showered and dressed and I got up and showered and dressed (are you spotting a theme here? :) then Marion arrived at 11am to spend the day with Alan.

Except it turns out it wasn't an ordinary Saturday after all.

At 2pm the doorbell rang and there stood Andrew, one of the boys from Alan’s class at school, with his mum Diane (spookily Andrew’s parents are also called David and Diane). After few minutes conversation (this was the first time we’d met Andrew’s mum and only the second time we’d met Andrew, the first time being at the school prize-giving in June) Diane left, the plan being Andrew would stay at ours till 5pm when we’d run him home (he lives about half an hour away).

What happened over the next few hours was a wonder to behold and I have wept tears of joy more than once this evening as a result.

Those of you who know my journal know how Alan’s cerebral palsy affects him and will understand how difficult it is for him to build friendships with young people his own age. Not easy when you’re stuck in a wheelchair and can’t communicate using speech. Andrew on the other hand is quite able in comparison. Infact apart from a hearing aid to correct his slight hearing impairment, it’s difficult to work out exactly what Andrew’s difficulties are. So, it was with slight apprehension I invited Andrew over.

We had a list of possible activities lined up incase Andrew got bored. And of course I was fretting over a load of what ifs……what if Alan wanted his own space and sent Andrew out his room? What if Andrew got bored and wanted to go home but Alan wanted him to stay. What if they didn’t get on? What if Alan wanted to do one thing and Andrew wanted to do another…..and so on.

Of course what hadn’t penetrated my thick head was that over the last year, since Alan started at his new school, this pair have been steadily building a friendship and so know each other really well and are already at that place of complete ease with one another.

Once they were settled in Alan’s room with a dvd, Alan was very quick to tell the rest of us to get lost and leave them to it. In the end they watched a dvd, listened to music, went out a walk (the rain shortened that activity) and generally had a brilliant time in each other’s company.

It quickly became clear that Andrew knows Alan really well including all his communication signals. Why I’m surprised that they are both on each other’s wavelengths I’m not sure. They’re the same age after all.

In the end Andrew didn’t go home at 5 o’clock, he stayed for tea and declared David the best crispy pizza maker in the world (crispy = well fired!) and announced he would be happy to come for a sleepover (and could stay tonight if we wanted him to!) He also asked if Alan was having a birthday party for his birthday next week. I explained Alan wasn’t that keen on birthday parties but we were having his grandpa and uncle and aunt and cousins over next Saturday afternoon for a few hours. I was just about to ask him if he would like to come to when he announced he would be happy to come too. So that’s sorted!

It turns out that Andrew is also a big McFly fan and like Alan, has seen them in concert a few times. It’s now been agreed between him and Alan that Andrew will keep his eye on ticket master for tickets when they next tour and they will go see them together. There was also talk of next year's T in the Park. He's also planning to bring his ipod next time so they can listen to Greenday, The Foo Fighters and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Alan was beside himself with joy!

And of course we got to hear a few stories from school that we were unaware of. I almost wet myself laughing at some of them. Then Andrew started telling us something that Alan quickly made very clear was not for sharing and Andrew picked up on that straight away and said “that’s to stay a secret” and Alan was beaming with delight.

We eventually dropped Andrew off at home just before 8pm. He turned to Alan as he got out the car, tapped him on the shoulder and said “see you at school on Tuesday best pal."

My heart almost burst.