We love to laugh. Arden is a great one for coming up with puns or changing the words to popular songs which makes us all either laugh or groan. Everyone in our family thinks that they are a comedian, even Nick. It took Nick a while to gain the language skills to be able to share his sense of humor with us. When he was younger, he often laughed when we were with other people who were laughing and I would wonder if he understood the comedy or if he was just mimicking others.
He had begun teasing others by calling them by the names of his favorite cartoon characters such as Scooby Doo or Batman. He would also sing songs and put his siblings names in the words, like, “his name was Derek, he was a show-girl.” He loved the reaction he got from them.
Once, when Nick was about 16 years old, we gained a glimpse of who he was inside there. Arden and I had been encouraging Nick’s older brother Ryan to find a job. We had been talking to him for a couple of weeks about it. One day, Ryan was teasing Nick, trying to get a response out of his younger brother. He kept calling him Nick-a-Wuss instead of Nicholas. After about the third time, Nick turned to his brother and said, “You, Ryan, can’t get no job.” We were all stunned. Nick had thrown a zinger back at his brother.
It was an amazing moment. We were all laughing and Nick kept repeating over and over, “What I say? You Ryan, can’t get no job.” “What I say.” I don’t think that Ryan thought it was funny, but Nick sure did. We all laugh about it now, even Ryan.
There are many days when Nick seems to be out of it. Either he is suffering with seizure activity or he has a lot of medicine on board to keep the seizures at bay. But some days, the clouds in his brain part and we see his amazing personality shine through. Those are the days that I like to remember, they are incredible.
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