Dear Dr Fields

'Dear Dr Fields' is the story of a young man's life from birth through childhood to age 25 with an epilogue on the subsequent years. The book gives an insight into the life of Steven, a young man with an intellectual disability, making the best of life in an unforgiving world. It shows the challenges, successes and failures, highs and lows, joys and sorrows of the first 25 years of his life and finishes on a positive note with the move from the family home to pursue life in his own home (even if that is only one street away). The book shows Steven's juvenile tantrums, great sense of humour, teenage moodiness, ability to make friends, clear likes and dislikes, sensitivity to others, amazing abilities, contrasting inabilities, pride in achievements, stubbornness, inability to deal with disappointments, complex relationships with other family members and many other facets of his personality. The book is honest about the fact that the lives of other family members lives changed forever with Steven's birth; it also shows how those life changes made them wiser people and strengthened the family unit. This is, however, Steven's story and his triumph over the hand that life has dealt him is his alone.