By Emily Tate, Public Broadcasting Service, March 10, 2020
In the living room of his mother’s apartment, a threadbare two-story unit next to the train tracks, Ryder pulls out bulky plastic toys from a bin and wonders aloud about how they work, smiling toothily, mumbling along to “Baby Shark” and occasionally popping another fruit-flavored gummy into his mouth.
Although he maneuvers from one activity to the next with the energy and ease of a typical tyke, Ryder, at age 4, has been exposed to a serious amount of instability and anguish.
Born into a family struggling with opioid addiction in early 2016, Ryder joined his mother at two separate residential treatment centers before the age of 2, and later lived with her in a homeless shelter for more than 100 days. He witnessed heated, sometimes violent, arguments among adults close to him. By age 3, he and his newborn brother, River, had been separated from their parents and placed in the custody of family friends.
Comments (0)