For decades, families with challenged children had nowhere to turn. Too often, the answer was an asylum, a back room, or silence—children who were never talked about, never acknowledged, never given a real chance to live.

Dream Catcher is Yvonne Mason’s powerful account of one of those children: her brother Stan, born in 1952. The world expected him to fail. Institutions and attitudes expected him to disappear.

He did not.

With honesty and heart, Mason recounts how Stan was not cast aside—not hidden, not erased—and how love and determination carved a path when the system offered none. It is a memoir of success in an era defined by failure for people with disabilities, and a reminder that every life deserves to be seen.

Dream Catcher
Failure was never an option.

I have had many folks down through the years ask me why I do what I do. They ask me why I go my own path. Well, here is a back story. The woman you see today is not the same little girl that was afraid of her shadow. Who spent her entire youth trying to please others because she thought that was the way it was done. When that little girl wanted to live a dream the feedback was always “Why?” Girls don’t do that. You see I was born in 1951. I was never good enough, the teachers always told my mother “She is doing the best she can.” Those words were said in a “I pity you” way. My craft was not math, it was the arts, but they were never good enough either, not my painting nor my writing. I spent years settling both in relationships and in my chosen professions. After the last heartbreak (not my late husband, he got me), I decided it was time to fly- not just fly but to soar. Let the world say what they would, it was time to take a page from my brother Stan’s life “just do it” I went to college at 52 got my degree in Criminal Justice – fulfilled a dream – then I moved to Florida. A book that had set on a shelf of over 30 years came to life- because I just did it. Like Stand when he was born with no resources to help him as a challenged baby, I found ways to no longer settle. Not in relationships, not in my craft and not in life.

What people say about me, how they feel about me, is a them problem, not a me problem that was the first lesson- The second lesson was when one waits for a dream to become real it never happens, one has to make it real. The third lesson- stand tall (all four feet of me) own a room when I enter it and know who I am. This journey with all of you- is another dream, it is real, it is happening and no it is not perfect, however, it is like our works always a work in progess. As Stan would say, “Its alright, it will all work out.” You see Stan is challenged, he is 13 months younger than me, but his wisdome is ageless. His story was my first book. His life lessons is what keeps me going on days I want to fold this tent and shut it down. He is my yardstick – Yes, you can purchase the book on amazon Dream Catcher, Failure Was Never an Option

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9DKMBHJ