“'You must be proud of your son,’ someone will say. Yes, I am. More than they’ll ever know.”
Al Roker has opened up to Guideposts magazine about parenting his son, Nick, 17, who has special needs."Do I get frustrated with my son sometimes? You bet,'' Al wrote in a personal essay."But then I remember my dad, how understanding he was. And Deborah reminds me that I have to show my son not only that I love him but that I like him as well. More than that, I admire him."
Nick, who is the youngest of Al's three children, is"somewhere on the spectrum and maybe obsessive-compulsive,'' Al wrote.Nick has become particularly involved with St. James Episcopal Church in Manhattan, where he is the principal cross bearer as part of the worship team.Al was admittedly skeptical of signing Nick up for taekwondo as a kid at Nick's insistence, but then watched him blossom when he began his training.
"In , you have to master systematic sequences of moves to progress to the next level,'' Al wrote."Turned out that all those repetitive drills were just the thing for Nick. Where his OCD nature can be a drawback in some situations, it was a strength here. And he proved to be very competitive."Al also watched as St. James became another important place for Nick to carve out an identity.
"On Sundays when I was feeling really down about Nick — wondering where our son would find his place in this world — I found it a comfort to note that some of the acolytes also had special needs,'' he wrote."One performed his duties in a wheelchair; another had Down syndrome. Nick watched and wanted to join them. And the folks who oversaw the acolytes were happy to have him.
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