Thanks to David Stamps for sharing Asperger's story

To The Daily Sun,

I’d like to thank David Stamps for sharing his Asperger’s story.

In the early 2000s, I worked for a brilliant gentleman, who was a bit “quirky”, for want of a better word. On Sept. 11, 2001, my husband called and told me that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Many of my co-workers and I went into the conference room to see what happened and ended up watching the horror unfold. Our manager went back to his office and sent an email to the entire company, telling us to get back to our desks and get to work. We were a software firm, taking mostly inbound technical support and sales calls. There were no calls, so he told us we should be making outbound calls to customers and trying to upsell them.

We thought he was just horrible; however, as the day went on, we learned a few things about our boss, colleague and friend. First of all, his brother was in the Pentagon (he was not injured). He also didn’t have the emotional coping skills that many of us shared. He shied away from human contact, and didn’t appreciate the comforting embraces of concerned friends. He needed to logically process things and there was nothing logical about what we were seeing. His reaction was to go back to the routine of the day and try to bring us along. After that day, he struggled with how he had reacted.

It wasn’t until a few years later that he received a diagnosis that made his reaction that day and in myriad ways throughout his life make sense to him and those around him. He’s happily married now. Still brilliant. Still quirky. He just knows what’s going on with him and is a little better able to show us what a big heart he has. I’m grateful to know him and to still call him a friend.

So, David, thank you. You reminded me of my friend and reminded me what a gift he is. 

Hillary Seeger

Meredith