Martin Andersen pointed out the window and gasped. “Truck!” he yelled. Michelle Andersen, his younger sister, just nodded and continued her conversation with her mother. Martin, realizing no one was paying attention to him, began to yell louder and point at everything in the store while unintelligibly screaming its name. As they made their way to the check out, Martin became even more excited as the woman behind the cash register began to put the items in a bag. “Bag!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, bag,” Michelle replied. Before the woman even finished placing the clothing in the bag, Martin shoved in his football and looked at his mother and sister for confirmation. Michelle slightly laughed and then told Martin to wait until the nice lady was done bagging their items. Confused, Martin stopped paying attention. As they were leaving, Martin turned to the cashier and said, “Have a day!” Michelle laughed and then followed Martin out of the store. For her, this was routine. Martin, her 29-year-old brother, is autistic.

“I’ve never known any different than other kids,” Michelle said. “I remember going to my friends’ houses when I was little and wondering where their special needs brother was. It was normal, but not at the same time.”

Michelle is currently a sophomore early childhood intervention specialist major at Ashland. She said that, at first, it was a tough decision to come to school an hour and a half away from home.

“It was kinda hard,” she said. “Martin just relies on me for a lot of things. Me and him just click. We’ve always kind of bonded more than [my other brother] and he had.”

Michelle also said that her older brother, Miles Andersen, was really the one who gave her the push to come to school away from home. Miles went to a local college and was always home to help their parents with Martin. However, Michelle said Miles didn’t want that for her.

“I remember Miles driving me to cheerleading practice when he had just started college,” she said. “And he told me, ‘Don’t let Martin hold you back from what you have – from your potential.’ And I remember thinking it was a mean thing to say. But then I thought about it for a while, and when I made the decision to come here, he was really proud of me that I made the step to prove that it can be done; that we can live without [Martin], I guess.”

Martin was diagnosed with autism and a mild case of mental retardation when he was just three years old. His family said they first noticed it when he still wasn’t walking at around 18 months. Although they were worried about the fact that Martin wasn’t walking, his mother, Marla Andersen, was put at ease after visiting the doctor.

“When he was about 12 months old he started walking, but fell pretty hard and didn’t walk again until he was four,” she said. “We went to the doctor and he said ‘[Martin] has a twinkle in his eyes. He’ll walk and talk when he’s ready.’ I shouldn’t say that he’s Autistic; he has some forms of Autism.”

Martin is the oldest of three children. Miles was born when Martin was six, and Michelle was born when he was 10. Both Marla and Michelle agreed that Martin’s siblings never had a problem with him. Both younger children had to mature fast and learn that not everybody will accept Martin the way they do.

“We were standing in line at the Mall to see Santa,” Marla said. “Martin was 11, Miles was five and Michelle was two. And all these kids are laughing and pointing at Martin, and the parents are watching this happen. I mean, have you ever seen a five-year-old turn on kids? [Miles] said, ‘What’s your problem? Haven’t you ever seen a handicapped kid before? That’s my brother you’re laughing at and that’s not nice.’”

Although Michelle was too young to remember this particular incident, she said she takes Martin with her almost everywhere and has had to defend him multiple times in public.

“I’ll take Martin to the grocery store with me because he likes to see the trains that we pass,” she said. “And we were standing in line one day, and he wanted a pop like always. But I didn’t have enough money to get him a pop so I told him no. He starts screaming and throwing a temper tantrum. And we just ignore it when this happens. But this woman in front of me kept staring and so I said, ‘This is Martin. Would you like to learn about Autism?’ I used to yell at people but I’ve learned that that’s not going to teach anyone anything. So now I say, ‘Can I educate you on Autism?’”

Marla said that she has never been embarrassed or had a problem with bringing Martin in public. She said that it has benefitted him, rather than sitting in their house every day.

“Since Martin was born, he’s gone everywhere with us,” she said. “It has made him more social.”

Michelle agreed.

“It’s families like ours that changed society,” she said.

As with any other child, Martin brings difficulty. However, the entire Andersen family agrees that Martin is anything but a burden.

“Most sisters either have a younger brother that annoys the crap out of them, or an older brother that wants to protect them,” Michelle said. “I have both. There are times when Martin makes me want to rip my hair out, and other times when he gets upset because I leave the house with a boy. But none of us would be the people we are without Martin.”

Marla agreed and said that Martin has taught her many lessons that couldn’t be learned any other way.

“He teaches you patience,” she said. “And he kind of humbles you. I wouldn’t trade him for the world.”