By: Bonnie Arnwine

I’ll start off by saying this is a strange topic for our blog, but after talking with several people in our community I’ve been asked to write about what recently happened to our family.  By now most of us have heard about the tragic crash at the Reno Air Races.  Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong and a piece of the plane’s tail came off before the plane crashed.  My son photographed the part coming off the tail.  It’s an amazing shot, it’s amazing that he took the picture…

Reno Air Race Part Coming off the Tail Before the Crash

Developing Talents

It’s often recommended that you work with a person on the autism spectrum to develop their talents and passions.  My son is incredibly detail oriented, he’s in advanced placement art classes, loves photography and loves aviation.   At five he could tell the difference between an F-14 and an F16, which by the way I still can’t.  So we bought him photography equipment and my husband takes him to airshows to take pictures.  It’s opened up a new community for our son and our family.  Online and at shows Geoffrey has received friendly advice from photographers, met other aviation enthusiasts and is slowly building a social circle.

Life is often Bittersweet

Back to the Reno Airshow, he took the picture, but it’s been bittersweet.  Geoffrey  loves aviation and saw many other people who love aviation die that day.  He feels terrible about all the people that were hurt and he’s haunted by the images of death, pain and suffering that he saw.  As we’ve been talking, he’s shared that he feels physically sick about the pain everyone must be feeling.

At the same time his picture has been shown on CNN, NBC and ABC and that’s good, right?  It is good and we’re glad that his photograph may play a part in explaining what happened that day.  He’s given a copy to the NTSB and we hope it will help their investigation.  The photograph has also shown the world that Geoffrey is on his way to becoming a very good photographer, and his father and I am glad for that.

This is the way life seems to go for us, it’s full of ups and downs, wonderful moments and deep heartache.   This is the way life goes for all of us, people both on and off the spectrum.  Please keep the Reno Air Race victims in your prayers.  We are holding on to Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. “