Heather Brow admits that the Orioles aren’t her only favorite team.
The Bowie resident, who has autism, is divided between the Orioles and nearby Washington Nationals, often spending her nights flipping back and forth between channels to watch the two teams. But while her loyalty might be split, she doesn’t lack any passion for the Orioles, who will be hosting her and her parents, Roger and Peggy, on Thursday for their game against the Cleveland Guardians as part of their Autism Acceptance Night initiative.
Heather and Roger have been ushers for the Chesapeake Baysox, the Orioles’ Double-A affiliate, for the past eight years. She works the kids area at Prince George’s Stadium while her dad is assigned a section in the seating bowl. The Brow family received tickets to Thursday’s game through Bitty & Beau’s, a coffee shop chain that employs more than 450 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including Heather, at its locations across the country.
“It’s awesome, especially when it gets busy in the summer,” Heather said of working Baysox games. “It’s always busy in the summer. Keeps me going. Keeps me hopping.”
Roger and Peggy say Heather, their second of four adult children, is one of the most determined people they know. She’s a talented figure skater and currently picking up French through Duolingo, the language-learning app. What has really motivated her since childhood, however, is to be like everyone else.
School had its challenges growing up. Heather took four to five hours to do her homework every night, but she was intent on graduating from high school after being held back for a second year of kindergarten. She got her diploma and entered the working world, getting a job at Chili’s right out of school before landing with Bitty & Beau’s and the Baysox.
“She wants to move on in life as everybody moves on in life,” Peggy said. “She wants to achieve things every day. She wants to work and pay for her things and earn enough money to live on and that kind of thing, and I think her ambition is really good.”
The way autism affects the brain, people with the condition often struggle to pick up on social cues, process emotions and react appropriately to the environment around them. It’s always challenging for their parents or guardians, who must practice patience and understanding much more than the average parent.
Roger recalled several years in which he struggled to connect with Heather and help her get through high school. He would come home tired after a long commute from work and she stopped responding to his attempts to talk with her, so he started using her favorite stuffed penguin to help them communicate again.
“She was stressing out too, because I’m coming home and I want to help her, but I’m not really helping her by asking questions,” Roger said with tears in his eyes. “Finally, I think she just shut me off for about two years, and I’m like, ‘How do I do it differently?’ So, I started talking to her penguin. ‘Hey, Penguin, how was your day?’ Then I just dropped the facade, Dad. Added humor, leveled off, lowered my blood pressure, whatever. I gotta work from her level and everything else should level off. … Just learn. Learn.”
Working together with the Baysox has helped Roger and Heather further strengthen their bond, as has their love of baseball. The three of them were thrilled to receive the tickets and hope Heather can make another lifelong memory at Camden Yards. Her first time there, she became an instant fan of Adam Jones when he tossed them a ball. Another fan intercepted it, but a family friend was able to help get them one signed by the former outfielder and it sits on the shelf in her bedroom along with a book signed by a slew of minor league players.
“I have a lot of autographed signed balls from all the previous games I’ve been to,” Heather said. “Especially the one in 2017 when I did the road trip. We did Norfolk ones, Aberdeen and we’re gonna try to go this summer with Pathfinders to Aberdeen and [the Delmarva] Shorebirds.”
Roger and Peggy volunteer with Pathfinders for Autism, another group the Orioles invited to Thursday’s game, and they hope that raising awareness can help other parents raising children with autism find the support they need.
“Whenever I meet someone else that’s going through autism for the first time, anything I can do to help. That’s what we do as volunteers,” Roger said. “We just love to help. We love to reach out and hopefully give them answers, but certainly give them direction and [if] they can take our message, we’ve helped someone.”
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