One of the highlights of 2019 was Oscar as the featured guest on Connections with Evan Dawson, an hour-long radio program on our local NPR affiliate, WXXI 1370AM. Oscar spoke about disability rights and awareness, and did us proud, to say the least. (David and I appear on the show as well, along with Oscar’s school counselor). Here’s a quick one-minute spot from the show:
And here is the link to the full hour-long show:
https://www.wxxinews.org/post/connections-oscar-merulla-bonn-disability-rights
This came about because last spring Oscar’s fifth grade teacher invited him to give a presentation to his class on disability rights for Human Rights Day. Once he moved to the middle school in the fall, he requested to give this presentation to the faculty at the middle school. The Connections producer caught wind of the presentation and invited Oscar on the show!
This fall Oscar was the Ring Dude in Briana & Brad’s wedding. Briana was Oscar’s very first MDA camp counselor when he was six and seven! What special people, what an incredible event!
Oscar has taken his drawing to a whole new level this year, these are a few in the recent series of demons he has created:
David had quite the year. He injured his knee in March and had ACL reconstruction surgery at the end of May. For a guy who had been running 6 days a week, and doing the lion’s share of the physical work of taking care of Oscar, this was no small ordeal. We are deeply grateful for the folks who fed us and helped us out with Oscar! David was cleared to run in October and completed PT in November. He worked so hard to get there!
And I did a lot of reading this year (this is just a small sample) and I also gave a reading, for the first time in a long time, with my friend and one of my favorite Rochester writers and artists, Reenah Golden.
We participated in the Rochester east-west anti-racism walk with our friend Ken, who is the great, great, great grandson of Frederick Douglass.
And we took Oscar on an overnight trip to see one of his favorite bands…
We had a much needed and deeply relaxing/rejuvenating week at the ocean (Rhode Island) where we ran into dear friends and neighbors who we ended up spending much joyous beach time with!
And we had the great fortune this year of seeing many friends and family from far away, many of whom we had not seen in quite some time!
David with my two favorite cousins at the Mark Bradford show at the Baltimore Museum of Art
Oscar with friend and author of Good Talk, Mira Jacob. (If you haven’t read her book, you must!!! All three of us appreciated it deeply, one of the best books of 2019 for sure!!!)
Oscar & Lila (at the Memorial Art Gallery) have known each other since they were in utero
We became great friends with this family when Oscar and Graham were in preschool together! We caught up with them in RI!
We had too much fun with these guys to remember to take a photo until it was dark. We’ve been friends with Sarah nearly 20 years, but we live thousands of miles away from one another…
And what joy to see this Sarah, who Sally went to college with, and her kiddos.
And another fabulous fall visit from Noppa and Merrill Bittner!
We are grateful for ALL our family and friends, near and far, and for many good times spent.
xxoo,
S, D, O
