Donald Triplett was autism’s “Case 1”

At first there were words, so many words. “Chrysanthemum!” was a favourite. He used to like saying that one. And “Dahlia” too—he liked that one so much he would repeat it: “Dahlia! Dahlia! Dahlia!” The five-year-old Donald Triplett had non-floral favourites as well. Sometimes, he sounded like an irate grammarian: “Semicolon, capital, slain, slain,” he would say. Then, as if conciliatory: “I could put a little comma.” Some of his phrases had an almost biblical beauty: “Through the dark clouds shining.”