Touched by a music artist!

I have a deep appreciation of music and I enjoy listening to songs that have a nice beat to it and that makes you feel good when you hear it play. I like to follow music groups and share my love of music with my son. One thing I learned about my son and his autism is that he seems to have developed a talent for remembering a song after a couple of times hearing it and he seems to sing on key. After creating a Myspace page I have become friends of many music artists and as a result we have a way of connecting with them and listening to their music on their page. I also have received friend requests from music artists and I always gladly accept their request as I always enjoy learning of new music artists.

One particular artist has become a very special friend to my son and I. I remember receiving a friend request from Gayle Force Wind, a band from Ohio. Their Myspace page is maintained by the lead singer, a woman named Gayle Gardner. I remember replying to her request indicating that my son and I looked forward to viewing her page and checking out her music. The first song I heard play on her page was titled Storm and my son and I enjoyed it. Our favorite song was Stuck on stupid which is a fun song. After we heard a few songs we wrote back to her on her page and told her that we really enjoyed the music and would be back. I mentioned to her how much music means to my son as he seems to gravitate to it and seems to enjoy singing when he hears a song he likes. I also mentioned to her that Matthew is autistic and that he can occupy himself by listening to music for hours compiling music playlists and making different variations of his lists. She wrote us back and seemed to take an interest in Matthew and she was very concerned about his autism and she wrote about her band and asked how he became interested in music. I told her that when he was very young we would help get him to sleep by playing gentle calming music and thought that may be the reason he developed a liking towards it. Music seems to help settle him and he enjoys listening to it and reading the songs and learning the titles and counting the number of albums the artist has. We wrote to each other and when I told her about Matthew's interest in her band she was flattered and she wrote back to us indicating she would like to send Matthew a little gift. I told her that was very kind of her but wasn't necessary but she insisted. She was so sweet as she sent Matthew 5 copies of her cd from her band Gayle Force Wind which includes the songs Matthew likes, She also sent Matthew pictures of her band performing at various venues and wrote a nice little message to him. She reached out to our son and we thought that was very kind of her.

We wrote back to her and her band thanking her for her friendship and her wonderful gift that made Matthew's day.

Gayle Gardner and her band Gayle Force Wind are truly special to us and their music is great. We wish Gayle and her band all the best and sincere thanks for reaching out to Matthew.