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Elliot Landry and Miles Jones

Elliot Landry and Miles Jones were chosen brothers from childhood until Elliot’s death in his late fifties. They first met through their mothers around 2006–2007 and shared daily household life after Candy Jones began regularly caring for Elliot in 2008.

Overview

Miles recognized Elliot as a brother despite the judgments other people made about Elliot’s size, speech, and disability. Where teachers and adults called Elliot “simple” or “slow,” Miles responded to him as someone whose needs and wishes mattered.

Miles learned from Candy to accommodate neurodivergent peers, share without resentment, and stand up to bullies. At about seven or eight, he told Elliot’s abusive half-brother Sean to leave when Sean made Elliot cry. By eleven, Miles was defending Elliot from cruelty and helping build blanket caves for sensory regulation.

During Elliot’s senior year, when COVID-19 left him intubated and critically ill, Miles made hand-drawn flyers asking the community to send him cards. He distributed them across their Alabama community, and hundreds of people responded.

Their brotherhood combined defense during crises with years of shared meals, play, rest, and ordinary company.

Origins

First Meeting, c. 2006–2007

Miles met Elliot when Miles was approximately five and Elliot was approximately three, through their mothers’ friendship. In 2008, when Miles was approximately seven and Elliot was five, Candy Jones began providing regular childcare while Jazmine worked. Elliot then became a constant presence in the Jones household alongside Miles and his younger brother Noah, who had been about two when Candy first met Elliot.

At their first meetings, three-year-old Elliot was already about five-year-old Miles’s size despite being two years younger. His accelerated growth was visible well before his pituitary diagnosis at fifteen. He had limited expressive speech, communicated partly through gestures and sounds, and struggled with sensory overwhelm. Miles watched Candy respond with gentle accommodation and learned to do the same. Regular childcare from 2008 deepened those early lessons through daily contact.

Miles’s first lessons in brotherhood came from watching Candy offer muffins and apple juice before Elliot’s hunger became a crisis, create blanket caves when he was overwhelmed, teach him basic signs when words were difficult, and treat his needs as ordinary parts of family life.

Seven-year-old Miles put those lessons into practice. He shared without being asked, made space on the couch when Elliot needed comfort, and learned when Elliot needed quiet or company.

Their earlier play included Lego, a plastic T-Rex with a roar button, and a shared tapping rhythm. Miles offered toys without forcing them into Elliot’s hands or requiring an immediate spoken answer. He explained that Candy had taught him to let a newcomer go slowly because not everyone liked loudness right away. He also knew the comfort of quiet for himself; his blanket cave’s rules were “no loud and no fast. Only soft.”

Miles gave Elliot a stuffed green dinosaur after a playdate ended early because Elliot’s knees hurt. Elliot kept it on his bed as it faded and lost a button eye. A plush turtle Miles brought home to the sleeping Elliot kept the dinosaur company. Miles offered the cool side of a couch pillow, stayed still while Elliot slept against him, and added a second blanket when the first did not cover Elliot’s legs and toes. Watching Finding Nemo did not require constant attention to the screen: Miles enjoyed its music and told Elliot that listening was enough.

Dynamics and Communication

Protection

From early childhood, Miles defended Elliot when others mocked, dismissed, or threatened him. His protection was immediate, even when confronting someone carried a social risk for Miles.

Communication

Much of their communication existed nonverbally, especially in Elliot’s early childhood when expressive speech was limited. Miles learned to read Elliot’s signals: when the blank expression meant pushing down pain, when silence meant overwhelm versus contentment, when Elliot needed intervention versus space.

This intuitive understanding deepened over years of shared life. By adolescence, Miles could recognize when Elliot’s appetite disappeared mid-meal (the McDonald’s incident) and knew it meant emotional shutdown, not physical satiety. He knew when to speak up and when quiet presence was what Elliot needed.

Safety and Ordinary Company

Miles created physical and emotional safety for Elliot in several ways:

  • As children, Miles helped build dark, quiet blanket caves where Elliot could regulate after sensory overload.
  • Miles positioned himself between Elliot and threats, including Sean’s abuse, bullies’ mockery, and strangers’ cruelty.
  • After confronting people who made fatphobic comments, Miles reassured Elliot so he could keep eating.

Humor and Daily Life

Miles also teased, joked, and shared ordinary time with Elliot. He defended him without treating him as fragile or making their relationship only about protection.

Family and Cultural Context

Miles’s protection of Elliot grew within the Jones family’s Black Southern practice of kinship through shared care. Candy and Micah taught him to recognize a child’s unmet needs, advocate for access, and make someone part of the family through ordinary actions. By seven, he was learning that protection and tenderness belonged together. Micah’s hands-on care and Candy’s insistence on fair treatment provided alternatives to an expectation that a Black boy prove strength by hiding gentleness.

During the COVID hospitalization, Miles extended that family care into a communal response. His flyers connected grocery stores, community centers, churches, neighbors, and Elliot’s other relationships around one purpose: making sure a hospitalized brother knew people wanted him home. The young man’s campaign shared the practical reliance on personal networks found in church phone trees, shared meals for a family in crisis, and prayer vigils. It also echoed Montgomery’s history of Black organizing through leaflets and community networks. Hundreds of people answered his particular appeal; their response made the Jones family’s commitment visible beyond their home.

Their teasing and practical support placed disability within everyday family life without making it Elliot’s entire identity. Miles could understand that Elliot needed food, quiet, or help moving and still joke with him as a brother. He had known Elliot since Elliot was about three. Accommodation and affection developed together, with neither requiring Elliot to be inspirational, independent, or different from himself to belong.

Shared History and Milestones

Early Childhood, 2008–2013

From age seven, Miles grew up alongside Elliot as a constant companion and brother. Miles was approximately seven to twelve and Elliot five to ten during these years. Their early childhood together included:

  • Miles watched Candy teach Elliot signs and learned to communicate in ways Elliot could use.
  • He shared muffins, apple juice, toys, and space without treating Elliot’s hunger or need for quiet as greed or avoidance.
  • By seven or eight, he stood up to Sean when Sean made cruel comments or physically threatened Elliot. At about eleven, when Miles was roughly five feet tall, he still put himself between them and told Sean to leave.

When Sean mocked Elliot on the porch, Miles asked Elliot whether he wanted Sean to go and acted on his nod. Miles and Noah also noticed bruises Elliot hid from adults after visiting Reggie’s home. Miles asked about the harm privately and held him when he showed the marks across his ribs. His promise that Elliot did not have to return was a child’s protective reassurance. When Elliot tried to hide his crying, Miles pressed their foreheads together and told him, “You’re safe now.”

Middle School Defense

When Miles was approximately eleven to thirteen and Elliot nine to eleven, Miles challenged neighborhood children and school bullies who mocked Elliot’s size, speech patterns, or neurodivergent behavior.

Their shared household life continued when Jazmine and Elliot moved into the separate space in Candy and Micah’s home around 2014. Miles could make room beside himself on the couch, hand Elliot the remote, or continue drawing while Elliot rested against him. Elliot also helped him with his lizard. These were shared interests and reciprocal company rather than one uninterrupted caregiving role.

Elliot’s P.E. Near-Heatstroke Crisis, 2015

When eleven-year-old Elliot collapsed after severe overheating during physical education, Noah stayed with him in the nurse’s office and Candy responded as an emergency contact. Miles, about fourteen, confronted the possibility of losing his brother to a medical crisis. The episode deepened his awareness that Elliot’s heat intolerance and other physical complications could become dangerous even during ordinary school activities.

Elliot’s Thirteenth Birthday, 2016

For Elliot’s thirteenth birthday during Micah’s 2016 layoff, Miles and Noah drew a banner and two cards. One card called Elliot stronger than Superman, kinder than anyone, and their brother even if he was huge; its T-Rex wore glasses and held a birthday balloon. Miles sang in full voice over the cake and later helped Elliot settle when his knees locked again.

High School

Miles was a sophomore when fifteen-year-old Elliot began high school. He encouraged him at the car, walked beside him before their classes separated, and checked on him when their schedules allowed. They shared seventh-period Earth Science, where Miles saved him a place and brought cold water. After the first day, he texted, “You did good today. Anyone gives you shit, they’ll have to go through me.”

Outside school, care and ordinary joking continued together. After shopping, Miles and Noah talked in the back seat while Elliot dozed in front. Miles laughed at Noah’s Pop-Tart science-class story and told him to let Elliot sleep. Miles and Noah’s shared car ride was separate from the restaurant confrontation, which Miles handled without Noah.

McDonald’s Confrontation

During back-to-school shopping when Elliot was around fifteen and Miles about seventeen, they went to McDonald’s together. One of a group of teenagers at a nearby table made a loud, cruel comment about Elliot’s size and how much food he had ordered.

Elliot’s expression went carefully blank as he tried to suppress shame, anger, and grief. He stopped eating despite needing the food.

Miles turned to the speaker and said, “You got something to say? Say it louder. Or better yet, mind your own damn business.”

He also identified Elliot as his fifteen-year-old brother, said that he was autistic and had a medical condition, and asked whether the teenagers had anything else to say. His insistence on Elliot’s age challenged the assumption that his size made him an adult target for ridicule.

The person backed down. Miles turned back to Elliot and said, “Ignore them. They don’t know anything.”

Elliot nodded, throat too tight to speak, but he picked his burger back up and kept eating because Miles made it safe to do so.

The confrontation showed Miles’s pattern of intervening directly and then reassuring Elliot. He recognized that Elliot’s stopped eating reflected emotional shutdown rather than satiety.

Senior-Year COVID-19 Hospitalization and Flyer Campaign

During Elliot’s 2021–2022 senior year, severe COVID-19 left him intubated and critically ill in the ICU at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center. Miles remained involved throughout the hospitalization.

After his own football practice, Miles had picked Elliot up from J&R Foods as Elliot became ill. When Elliot deteriorated, Miles helped Micah dress him, joking about “Miles-approved fashion,” and steadied his back. He traveled with Elliot, Jazmine, and Melinda to UAB while Noah rode with Candy and Micah. Miles shared an earbud with Elliot, restarted a familiar song at his request, and squeezed his shoulder with the reassurance, “Still got you, big guy.”

When ventilation was being discussed, Miles posted an appeal for prayer that named Elliot as his best friend and the best person he knew. It spread through school and church connections and football forums. He cried quietly in the waiting room with his head in his hands.

While Elliot lay unconscious and critically ill, Miles acted where he could. Elliot developed a deep-vein thrombosis that was treated with anticoagulation but carried a risk of life-threatening pulmonary embolism. Miles could not control his brother’s recovery or eliminate his own fear of losing him; he could seek messages that Elliot might hear or later read.

Flyer Campaign

Miles created hand-drawn flyers asking the community to send cards, letters, and well-wishes to Elliot at the hospital. The flyers included Elliot’s name, the hospital address, and simple, heartfelt pleas:

“He needs to know he’s not alone. Please send him hope.”

“This is my brother, and I need your help to bring him home.”

Miles’s handwriting was shaky, with some letters uneven from tears. He placed the flyers throughout their community:

  • grocery store windows;
  • community center bulletin boards;
  • telephone poles; and
  • church services.

The flyers gave neighbors a way to tell Elliot that they cared and wanted him home.

Community Response

Hundreds of cards and letters arrived at UAB Medical Center for Elliot. People he had helped at J&R Foods, church members, former teachers, neighbors, and strangers responded to Miles’s request.

ICU nurses displayed the cards throughout Elliot’s room and read them aloud when his sedation was lightened, hoping he could hear the messages.

Hospital Visits

Miles visited whenever the ICU allowed and sat beside Elliot’s bed, among the tubes and monitors. He talked to Elliot while he was unconscious about the cards and the people praying, hoping, and waiting for him to wake. He promised Elliot that he was not alone and urged him to keep fighting.

Reunion After Extubation

When Elliot woke, he was confused and frightened, his speech affected by intubation, and he asked permission to sleep and begged to go home. Miles held his hand and told him:

“I knew you’d come back. I knew it.”

Miles also brought a stuffed animal that Elliot held through the prolonged hospitalization. During a post-extubation visit, Elliot remained awake with him for nearly an hour. Miles’s voice cracked beneath the teasing greeting, “Bro… You look like shit.” He struggled to finish saying how frightened everyone had been, gave Elliot a careful fist bump around the IV, and stopped joking when Elliot needed reassurance that he did not have to explain his hospital behavior.

Their conversation included school, Noah’s purple hands after a chemistry lab, and Candy’s tofu and broken blender. When Elliot finally asked permission to sleep, Miles told him he could and promised, “I’m not going anywhere.” Miles held back tears at the realization that his exhausted brother believed he needed permission to rest.

Public and Private Brotherhood

Community Recognition

People in their Montgomery-area community recognized Miles and Elliot as brothers. They saw them together at church, at J&R Foods where Elliot worked, and around town. Miles’s flyer campaign made the relationship more publicly visible and mobilized hundreds of people.

Chosen Kinship

Miles called Elliot his brother without qualifiers such as “like a brother” or “basically my brother.” For Elliot, that certainty affirmed that chosen kinship was as real as a biological tie.

Private Care

Their private life included shared muffins, blanket caves when Elliot needed quiet, comfortable silence, defense from Sean’s cruelty, and reassurance after public mockery.

Emotional Life

Miles’s Protection and Fear

Miles’s love for Elliot combined direct intervention with gentler reassurance afterward. He challenged strangers and bullies, then turned back to Elliot to make clear that their cruelty had changed nothing about his place with Miles.

During Elliot’s COVID-19 hospitalization, Miles’s flyer campaign gave him a practical response to the helplessness of watching his brother fight for his life.

Elliot’s Trust

Elliot trusted Miles as someone who did not call him “simple” or “slow,” patronize him, or pity him. Miles defended him against mockery and remained present through the COVID-19 crisis.

At McDonald’s, Elliot’s ability to pick his burger back up after the stranger’s comment showed the security he felt with Miles.

Reciprocity

Their relationship was not one-sided caretaking. Elliot helped Miles with his lizard, joined games and movies, and shared quiet time while Miles drew. Miles’s own desire for a quiet blanket cave became something they could enjoy together. Their bond rested on affection, shared pleasures, and chosen commitment rather than an obligation for Elliot to repay care with identical tasks.

Fear After the Hospitalization

Elliot’s near-fatal illness sharpened Miles’s fear of losing him. Miles continued to be present rather than withdrawing from the relationship because of that fear.

Health and Access

Medical Crises

Miles witnessed and responded to several kinds of medical crisis:

  • Frequent exhaustion crashes and pain episodes
  • COVID-19 near-death and prolonged ICU stay
  • Chronic pain from gigantism-related joint deterioration

Miles learned to provide practical support during crises without needing to hide every emotion. He could help dress and transport Elliot, organize a public appeal, or remain at the bedside while also crying in private and struggling to describe his fear.

Food and Gigantism

Miles grew up understanding that Elliot’s frequent hunger wasn’t greed—it was medical necessity. He watched Candy feed Elliot proactively and learned to do the same. At McDonald’s, when someone mocked Elliot’s food order, Miles understood the cruelty went beyond rudeness—it attacked Elliot’s medical needs, shaming him for requiring fuel to survive.

Autism and Communication

Miles accommodated Elliot’s neurodivergent needs from early childhood:

  • He created blanket caves for sensory regulation.
  • He accepted nonverbal communication and learned signs.
  • He recognized when Elliot needed space or company.
  • He challenged schools and adults who wanted to punish disability-related behavior.

Disability Advocacy

Miles challenged several forms of ableism directed at Elliot:

  • Fatphobic mockery of Elliot’s size and eating
  • Ableist assumptions about Elliot’s intelligence
  • Patronizing treatment from adults who called Elliot “simple”
  • Cruelty from peers who mocked Elliot’s speech or movement

Later Changes

Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis

For weeks during Elliot’s COVID-19 hospitalization, Miles did not know whether he would survive. He faced the possibility that his brother might die while unconscious and unreachable.

The flyer campaign gave Miles a way to act during a crisis he could not control medically.

When Elliot woke, hundreds of cards and Miles’s continued presence gave him tangible evidence that his brother and community wanted him home.

Geographic Distance

Elliot moved away from Alabama and began working for Jacob Keller in spring 2032. Geographic distance changed the daily rhythms of the brothers’ contact without ending their bond. Miles remained one of the people Elliot trusted to help him.

Around Elliot’s interview with Jacob, Miles had a new job and apartment, and Noah’s wedding was approaching. Elliot sometimes hesitated to call or text because he feared burdening Miles’s own life. In speaking to Logan, he said, “Miles would help, but he’s got Noah and the baby,” and explained that he did not want to be a burden anymore. That hesitation coexisted with his trust in Miles rather than following a rejection from him. Logan’s patience later reminded Elliot of Miles’s kindness.

Miles knew that Elliot had built a life with people who recognized his worth, including Jacob, Ayana, Logan, and Charlie, and had become a father to twins. Elliot carried forward Miles’s example of defending vulnerable people and remaining present when family needed him.

Lasting Influence

Elliot’s Model of Brotherhood

Miles’s example taught Elliot several aspects of chosen family:

  • Fierce protection without control or possession
  • Seeing worth when the world tries to erase it
  • Showing up during crisis, refusing to abandon
  • Defense that gives permission to exist as yourself
  • Love measured in action, not words

Elliot drew on those lessons when he later formed close relationships with Jacob, Logan, Charlie, and others.

Miles’s Understanding of Advocacy

Elliot gave Miles purpose and direction within their brotherhood. Learning to advocate for him, challenge ableism and fatphobia, and mobilize community during crisis shaped Miles’s understanding of justice and care. Their friendship also held ordinary pleasures that were not organized around an emergency.

Meaning of Chosen Kinship

Their relationship placed chosen brotherhood on equal footing with biological kinship. Miles’s repeated presence and defense, and Elliot’s trust and reciprocal care, gave that kinship its substance.

Flyers and Cards

Miles’s hand-drawn flyers remained a record of how he responded when Elliot might die. They brought hundreds of cards to the ICU, where staff displayed them for Elliot.

Continued Bond

As both built adult lives, they remained brothers. Elliot extended Miles’s example of protection to other people who needed it. Their relationship ended with Elliot’s death in his late fifties.

Relationships Family Relationships Chosen Family Elliot Landry Miles Jones