Shonda Schilling writes about her struggle to understand her sonShonda Schilling, the wife of retired Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, shares the painful and joyous story of her son Grant's struggle with Asperger's syndrome, and how it changed her life and her family. In this excerpt from her book, "The Best Kind of Different," she recounts her breaking point as a mother who didn't understand what was wrong with her son. To those who know my son Grant and me, I frequently referred to it as the summer that one or both of us would end up medicated. It was 2007, and Grant was seven. I was rounding the bend toward forty, but there were moments when I was so worn out I felt more like seventy. Every day was filled with exhausting challenges, one after another.
On a visit to my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, that summer, I somehow got it in my head that I should take Grant along with my other kids—Gehrig, then twelve, Gabby, ten, and Garrison, four—to an Orioles baseball game. I suppose it was wishful thinking on my part. There were so many reasons it could have been a special evening—so many reasons to be sentimental. Not only had I grown up going to Orioles games at the old Memorial Stadium, taking in game after game there with my dad, mom, and brother, mostly in the one-dollar bleachers, but the Orioles were also how I met my husband, Curt, who used to pitch for them. To make that particular game in the summer of 2007 even more exciting, Curt was pitching again, only this time for the opposing team, the Boston Red Sox. I wanted the kids to be there for that—to see “our” team play my home team. When we got to the stadium, I proudly led the kids up to the stands. Then . . . Read the full story. Related stories:Video: Schillings on family's struggle with Asperger's