Webinar: Aging with Autism: Learning from the Life of Donald Triplett

[@katiemcneece9291]

I was introduced to Mr. Triplett last year when I began working at the bank. He stops by every afternoon, greets everyone and watches TV in the lounge. His brother Oliver passed last year, but as it was indicated, Don has an entire town for support and continues to live a full life at almost 88 years of age.

[@judgeholder8112]

That’s amazing.

[@sbsman4998]

First comment, so few views highlight lack of interest in older autistics. Autistic adults do get old, although only a kid here at 75, Donald's childhood and mine very similar with good parental support that trusted their autistic child to "self-raise". My wild teen years left me edgy hard to get along with disagreeable questioning everyone/everything tall muscular fighter, most my bullies were anonymous cowards! What a struggle everything, had to teach myself to read talk socialize run a family business college all the while dealing with noise/pressure in my head, anxiety tensions, alienation from others untrusting, yet to my great surprise managed two successful highly skilled professions, two kids, few marriages, loved animals mostly yet stayed completely isolated. Guilt-free isolation, survival mechanism, survive we must!

[@abhyudaychakraborty3818]

proud of you man! survive we must!! - a kid with adhd

[@sbsman4998]

@@abhyudaychakraborty3818 Thank you Abhruday, sounds lovely, wish i could pronounce your name :))

[@homeontherange733]

Live your life on your own terms! I like this.

[@judgeholder8112]

Well said.

[@sbsman4998]

@@judgeholder8112 Very kind, thank you ~

[@ericarellano9010]

R.I.P Donald Triplett the first person I didn’t know that had autism

[@judgeholder8112]

I watched the documentary about him and I was so fascinated by it. There was 1 part that was NOT mentioned about him. His personal love life. I can’t speculate if he’d ever had girlfriends/kids or not. I strongly hope he’s still enjoying his single peaceful life. Or maybe he can get a girlfriend that way he’ll have someone to talk to on a daily basis. I wish him the best of luck. I’m a 25 year old man with autism.

[@MrAdriancooke]

It seems there may be some particular connection between autism and the zodiac sign of Virgo: we can see that Donald is one and so is Temple Grandin. I myself was born on 28 August 1958 but was only diagnosed with autism in 2014: I was born into a relatively comfortable family and though I moved out finally at age 22 I have experienced a great deal of difficulty with employment and continued to rely on my father to some extent. My father passed in 2014 and since that time things have sometimes been particularly difficult especially during this year of 2022. Managing finances has emerged as a particular issue.