The Spectrum Is Wide
Twenty-five-year-old Irene Chon sits stiffly in a small, private clinic in December of 2021. The room is small, with only a desk separating her and the clinician, who is about to assess her for autism spectrum disorder.
HOME
Four generations ago, my grandparents were displaced during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. None of my family has been able to permanently return, and few have even visited. My grandparents fled to Lebanon by foot, where they faced an entirely different form of institutional and social exclusion as Palestinians.
Sick Bingo
Esperança Da Silva sits in the brown leather recliner in a small, crowded two-bedroom condo in Brampton. She massages the Portuguese equivalent of Voltaren into the back of her knee. The piercing smell of medical ointment pervades the room, but it’s comforting and familiar to both of us. At four-foot-ten, the recliner seems to swallow her whole.