Lifelong Commitment: Single dad commits to life with a disabled son

Celebrating Fatherhood Series

Aaron Nations 

Aaron Nations knew what he was getting into on his very first date with Sonia. “She threw me right into the fire right away,” he said. “She had been run through the wringer a little bit already” and wasn’t going to waste any time. Aaron learned that Sonia’s son was disabled and required a lifelong devotion to his care. 

Aaron already had his own hands full. The high school teacher and basketball coach, set up on a blind date by a mutual friend, had just the year before won full custody of his own two sons. But that date — “it was an amazing first date. We sat and talked for hours.”

Braeden has KAT6A Syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that leaves him unable to communicate with words and fully dependent on his family for his care. 

Aaron and Sonia married this past March, four years after their first date. For him, caring for Braeden “was always about Sonia,” said Aaron, explaining that having a disabled son did not make him hesitate at all.

“It is different when you change your first poopy diaper on a 17 year old kid,” he said. “But it becomes part of the routine.” In the morning, he and Connor, 17, and Ryan Joe, 13, all pitch in for the work that Sonia has, for years, taken on every day alone. They change bedding, help Braeden get dressed, and in the evening the youngest helps tuck in his brother. The boys call Sonia “Bonus Mom.”

They have all made their adjustments, just as they did when Aaron became a single father. “It’s on us to figure it out,” he said. “I kind of adjust as I need to. Coaching and teaching come into play. I always start with ‘kill ‘em with kindness.’ It’s never perfect, but I try to work through everything I can with them.”

By Ellen Hiatt