Dear Friends,
I am so saddened over the loss of Nick D’Amora of CrimsonRise. I never met him but know many of his friends. And I feel like we Spellers have a strong bond despite distances that separate us. We feel each other.
He did so much with his time. He changed the world for many nonspeakers and their families and community. He is a hero. And it is so unfair that he had to go. So absolutely unfair.
I hadn’t known until recently that many of my peers have seizures. This also took the life of Christopher Finnes recently. And I am in awe of my friends who deal with epilepsy in addition to autism. I am so absolutely and profoundly feeling for them.
It makes me so angry that more research and work is not being done on the conditions and struggles we live with now. It is all fine to study the causes of autism, and I see why people do that, but what about the millions and millions of us who are autistic now? Do our medical issues, many of them chronic and severe, not warrant more research? Do we matter less than preventing, somehow, more people from becoming autistic? Do we have to suffer because we are inconvenient and marginalized?
At the heart of this is realizing how vulnerable and precious our lives are. And how it hurts to lose someone from our community when he and all of us had to work so hard to get where we are. I am so hoping his memory is blessed by us all working to make this world better for nonspeakers. Please consider supporting this campaign to continue his legacy.
Your Friend,
Danny
—-
From CrimsonRise:
Join Barbara Pandolfi D’Amora and her family in fulfilling Nick’s beautiful mission in life.
He cofounded CrimsonRise. As our cofounder he advocated for two things.
– To reach every speller out there.
– To build a place for spellers who have become fluent. An organization that is a prototype of what spellers do when they lead and build their own organization.
Please join this incredible campaign.
Danny With Words 