At a family wedding, my mother-in-law pushed my son’s wheelchair away from the table—then a bridesmaid exposed who moved him
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Chapter 13 / 27
Chapter 13 - Bram stops wearing bow ties For three months after the wedding, Bram refused bow ties.
Not formal clothes.
Only bow ties.
His therapist asked why.
“They’re family picture clothes.”
That was the association his body had made.
Cordelia never touched the bow tie.
She never criticized it.
Trauma and humiliation do not organize themselves around adult logic.
We did not force him.
At school picture day, he wore an open collar.
At Thanksgiving, sweater.
At Christmas, a tiny clip-on tie he chose because it had snowmen.
Then one morning he found the navy wedding bow tie in a drawer.
He asked:
“Can I cut this?”
I said:
“It’s yours.”
He cut it into three pieces with craft scissors.
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Then used one piece as a cape for a toy dinosaur.
Better purpose.
