This 17 year old young man in the psychiatric hospitals cell returned home after 15 years of incarceration. He had spent most of his time naked in this filthy jail cell, sleeping on a concrete slab, urinating and defecating in a hole on the same concrete slab, and his arms and hands covered with wounds and fecal matter. The hospital had told the child’s poverty stricken parents to leave him in the hospital because he had autism.

 

After years in this dehumanizing reality, his family decided to take him home. They were extremely poor and had an income of $600.00 per year. Gold and silver they had not, but what they had they gave to their son, unconditional love. This gift was sufficient to re-kindle his sense of being safe and loved. He now sleeps in a humble but clean bedroom and lives in a culture of gentleness with the loving embrace of his sister and parents. His bed is not made of concrete now, but of a straw mattress on the floor of his family’s mud shack. His floor is not caked with feces, nor are his mother and father and sister scared of him. They have an innate love for him and a precious desire to give him love. Old memories can quickly fade when unconditional love prevails.