(Part of an occasional series, because, well, most fuckers don’t deserve the headlines they get.)
Ronan Mattin doesn’t say much. But in these bloviated days…Maybe just enough, in fact.
See, Ronan is autistic. Or on the spectrum. Or however we’re limbo-ing around words we’re unable to admit we live, let alone utter: Ronan is sick, so infirmed he rarely communicates with words. I became so enamored of Ronan I looked up local Boston-area TV stations who interviewed the 9-year-old.
Or tried to interview him. Whenever a stranger asked him a question, Ronan would put his forefinger to his thumb, forming a circle he’d place on his lower lip. As if his hand was closing the lock to his mouth. But he was an adorable kid, never losing the smile or earnest head nod. But never speaking, either.
During one interview, Ronan’s grandfather put on classical music. The lock dropped away. The mouth opened into into a smile that make emoticons jealous. He ran to his grandfather’s lap to look at the classical album he began. “That’s how he communicates,” grandad said.
The grandfather had taken his progeny last week to see The Handel & Haydn Society, which had just finished its rendition of Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral” at Boston’s Symphony Hall. As the piece settled to its conclusion, Ronan could not help but blurt loudly: “WOW!”
Boston classical music station WCRB-FM, which was recording the concert, captured the exuberance on audio. The crowd can be heard bursting first into laughter and then rousing applause for the child. “That actually brought me to tears,” said concertgoer Mary Jane Leach, of Valley Falls, New York.
The Handel Society (America’s oldest performing arts group) launched a viral “Find the WOW Child” campaign, which quickly did. The Handel Society introduced Ronan to Harry Christophers, the society’s artistic director who was conducting the night of the performance. They then handed kid and grandpa a pair of tickets where the two would be the guest of honor.
The lock circle had returned to Ronan’s mouth by the time he took the tickets from Christophers. Granddad put a gentle hand to Ronan’s head. “What do we say when someone does something nice?”
“Thank you,” Ronan eked.
Doesn’t say much. Just enough, in fact.
