This Halloween He’ll be Eating Tacos Made with Brain

I have a part-time job moderating the blog for Easterseals national headquarters, and we published a post there this week that I’m sharing here, too.

Some of you might remember Bernhard Walke from previous guest poasts – he and his wife Rosa are the proud parents of nine-year-old Elena, and every year he comes up with a creative, clever and cute costume for her to wear on Halloween.

When Elena was a baby and could still be carried around, Bernard went as a thief, and his daughter went as a bag of money.

Another year she was a bulldozer, and last year Elena went to the school party dressed as Frida Kahlo! This year is a little different, though, and her dad’s guest blog post explains why.

As Frida Kahlo.

by Bernhard Walke

It’s no secret around the Walke house that I love Halloween. Perhaps it’s because it’s the last few days of decent weather, before the stress of the winter holidays sets in, and the last few days of daylight savings time. More likely is that Halloween provides me with an excuse to buy tacos de sesos (tacos made with brain).

In the past few years, my wife and my daughter haven’t really celebrated my enthusiasm for Halloween, but they’ve tolerated it at least. This year is different, though. Boy — is it different.

My daughter, Elena, lives with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and uses an electronic communication device to communicate. I thought that it would be a good idea to ask her school learning specialist and speech pathologist to task Elena with selecting a Halloween costume and writing about it. Perhaps, I’d get responses such as a rock star, a superhero, or a goblin. Who knows?

Elena gave us two options: a cat or myself. Since we weren’t sold on the idea of her going as herself, we thought that cat would suffice and we suggested getting cat ears, painting on whiskers and maybe putting on a tail. No, no, and no, were her responses. We were able to coax her into wearing a cat shirt and pants but that was about it.

So, we’ll probably have the most underwhelming Halloween costume this year, but I have to make peace with that because it’s Elena’s choice. And the more I think about everything, it makes sense. Elena tends to stick out wherever she goes. Even though the looks she gets are never mean spirited, she probably gets sick of it and just wants to go about things normally. My not-so-little daughter will be turning 9 in a few days and I’m assuming she’s getting to the point in her life where she just wants to blend in a little bit more rather than be such a courageous person. I get that.

So, we’ll still go trick or treating, give out candy, and hang out with cousins, but it’ll be more low-key. It’s what she wants, it’s honestly less work for me and I still get to enjoy my tacos de sesos.

A version of this post appeared earlier this week on the Easterseals National Blog.