Kerry Bloch and her husband, Robert, have a son whose name is David.
21 years ago doctors told Kerry she’d never been able to have a child. But, God has some other plans for her and gave birth to David at age 40.
When David was 4 years old, he began showing signs of severe autism.
“He was fine and then he just kind of lost it all,” she told BuzzFeed News.
David says only single words till 4 years and stopped speaking completely after that. He can go days without saying a word, Kerry said.
“My husband and I, we don’t really know what happened,” she said of his autism, “and honestly we don’t care what happened. It’s water under the bridge and we’re just moving forward and trying to give him the best life possible. That’s all that matters.”
David also had a severe immunodeficiency disorder, in this condition he needed to be isolated from other kids in their Neptune Beach, Florida, home. It was necessary to keep him away from people to prevent them from getting infected. Kerry takes care of him full-time, calling David her best friend.
“He wants friends badly. He’s home-schooled, and it’s just the three of us,” she said. “I know he’s lonely and he wants friends.”
David is a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars, he loves to watch their games over and over. A few weeks ago, David said to his mother, “I love Jaguars.”
“It was David’s first spontaneous sentence,” she recalled. “We’ve never had a conversation. I mean, no spontaneous speech at all until he said he liked the Jaguars.”
On Wednesday this week, David asked his mother a question for the very first time: “Would someone like me?”
“I had to go off and cry when he didn’t see me because it’s just kind of bittersweet that he’s trapped in there,” she said. “He does want to be liked, and he does want friends, and he doesn’t know how to make them.”
Kerry explained to David that both she and his dad loved him. She also said to him that God and Jesus liked him too. And his late grandmother liked him even though she’s not with us anymore. “And I said, ‘I’m sure anybody that met you would like you,’” she added.
Kerry shared David’s question on her Twitter account, where she writes under the handle @dsmom58 and shares updates on her son with other parents of autistic children.
She got a positive response from people who shared their own stories about their autistic children. Her tweet has since exploded, being retweeted and favorited thousands of times.
Kerry told BuzzFeed News that the way people responded to her tweet was so overwhelming.
“It’s mind-boggling. I’m overwhelmed,” she said. “David and I stayed up all night last night. All we did was stay on Twitter and I would read every tweet to him. I would show him the responses, the little GIFs, the pictures people were sending. He didn’t answer much, but he would say ‘pretty’ and ‘nice.’ You could see him just smiling. I’ve never seen him smile so much in my life.”
“I know we’re not going to be around forever,” she said. “I would love for David to find somebody special to take care of him when we’re gone. I just want him to be loved and to be happy and to be safe.”
David and her mother now responding to every single tweet.
“I know David. He doesn’t like to hurt anybody’s feelings. He doesn’t want anybody to be left out. He wants to answer every single one of them,” she said. “It may take months, but we’re going to try to answer everybody.”
Kerry also reminds people that sharing their thoughts or story on the internet can sometimes be good for them.
“People are always saying, ‘Twitter’s evil, Twitter’s horrible,'” she said. “I say, ‘No, it’s what you make it.’”
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