This is a Valentine’s Day story, and a birthday story.

Our son, Nathan, will turn 24 next week.

Every birthday is a milestone in some way or other, of course. In this case, the birthday seems especially significant to me because Nathan will be the same age I was when he was born.

As I recall it now, my 24th year was a big one in many ways.

It was the year I won an award from the N.C. Press Association for a series of articles I wrote at the Franklin Times in Louisburg about a troubled nursing home. Twenty-four years later, that’s still the only NCPA award I have won. Well, and I have been on staff several times at a paper that won “General Excellence.” I actually treasure that above the individual award.

The year 1988 was the time I left the weekly Franklin Times and joined the staff of the Daily Dispatch In Henderson. I went from being the most general of general assignment reporters to being a specialized education reporter. I also was introduced to the frenetic pace of daily newspapers.

Maybe you never did this, but I’ll admit that sometimes in junior high and high school I would have a big project or paper in a class and wait until the day — or night — before it was due to start on it.

That panic-stricken mindset of having too much to do in too short a time — how am I going to write as a knowledgeable source on something I just started learning about a few minutes ago? — that’s a normal day at a daily newspaper. Eventually, the panic part just wears off and you make peace with the fact that you have a few hours to get up to speed on something other people spent months figuring out.

But back to 1988. Most of all, it was the year Jane and I welcomed Nathan into our lives.

Almost from the beginning, we noticed he was not in sync with the developmental milestones we read about and heard about. At first, some people told us not to worry.

Increasingly, though, it became clear he was facing challenges far beyond what most of us have to deal with. Finally, six years later, in 1994, a school psychologist with the Durham Public Schools told us Nathan was autistic. The word didn’t change who our son was, he was the same child we knew and loved, but it did provide us a framework for thinking about what was going on his life — something to hang our hats on.

It also aided Nathan educationally. He had received wonderful pre-school education from good teachers in a child development center in Louisburg. But knowing more specifically about his challenges and needs helped his teachers, and us, moving forward.

Nathan was blessed with wonderful teachers at several schools, culminating at Camden County High Schools. He now has a community mentor, John, who is helping him further with developing independent living skills.

Oh, and did I mention he might have a girlfriend?

After all, this is a Valentine’s Day story.