Skip to content

Elliot Landry and Candy Jones

Elliot Landry and Candy Jones regarded each other as chosen son and mother. Candy’s friendship with Elliot’s mother, Jazmine Landry, began when he was about three; regular childcare from age five made the Jones household a second home. Candy’s food, communication support, school advocacy, and steady refuge remained part of Elliot’s life into adulthood.

Overview

Candy Jones first met Elliot Landry and his mother, Jazmine, around 2006–2007, when Elliot was three. When she began regularly caring for him in 2008, she was already learning how he communicated and what helped him feel safe. She became his chosen mother through years of food, patient teaching, refuge, and advocacy alongside Jazmine.

Candy extended maternal care to Elliot alongside Jazmine’s. She recognized his hunger crashes before he could articulate them, taught him basic signs when expressive speech was delayed, stood up to school administrators who wanted to punish him for disability-related behaviors, and eventually helped provide stable housing when his apartment became medically unsafe. She was listed as his secondary emergency contact at school.

Elliot could rest in Candy’s home without needing to prove he was easy to care for. That safety contrasted with the neglect and cruelty he encountered with his father, Reggie.

Origins

First Meeting: Circa 2006–2007

Candy met Jazmine Landry and Elliot around 2006–2007, when Elliot was approximately three years old. Candy had recently moved nearby. She brought muffins to Jazmine’s apartment, listened when Jazmine described the strain of multiple jobs and how others dismissed her concerns about Elliot’s health, and watched him so his exhausted mother could take a shower. When Elliot woke looking for Jazmine, Candy told him where she was, offered him food, and gave him time to come closer without demanding speech. Micah later invited both Landrys to dinner; Candy and Jazmine let Elliot choose whether to go, and Candy learned from Jazmine how he expressed a yes. Regular childcare began in 2008, when Elliot was five.

Candy later offered childcare while Jazmine worked. By 2008, her sons Miles and Noah were about seven and four. She and Micah welcomed Elliot into their household alongside them, treating the arrangement as family life rather than a favor Jazmine had to repay.

Early Caregiving

By the time Candy began regularly caring for five-year-old Elliot in 2008, she knew his delight in her muffins and had begun learning his nonverbal cues. Already taller than seven-year-old Miles, Elliot needed frequent food and rest as his body grew rapidly. Candy brought him into ordinary days with Miles and Noah while making room for his hunger, fatigue, sensory needs, and different pace of communication. Where others called him “difficult” or “delayed,” she attended to what he could communicate and what support he needed.

Dynamics and Communication

Recognizing Elliot’s Needs

Candy learned to recognize Elliot’s hunger crashes before he could explain them, offering muffins and apple juice proactively. She was not infallible: when young Elliot woke from a long sleep tearful and unable to tell her what he needed, she first thought he missed Jazmine, then realized he was also desperately hungry. She fed him and made clear that he could come to her for food. As she learned his rhythms, she came to know when to speak, when to offer quiet, and when to let him approach at his own pace.

Elliot did not have to beg or prove that his needs deserved attention in her home. Candy met them without shaming him for how often his growing body needed food or rest. She protected his sleep when exhaustion overtook him, sometimes covering him with a blanket where he had fallen asleep rather than waking him.

Teaching Communication

When Elliot had limited expressive speech as a toddler and young child, Candy taught him basic signs. She accepted his gestures and other nonverbal answers without demanding that he speak before she met a need. She did not mistake difficulty speaking for an inability to understand.

Redirection and Rest

When Elliot shut down or became overwhelmed, Candy made room for him to regulate in quiet corners and blanket shelters. She redirected gently instead of punishing him for an unmet need or demanding compliance while he was distressed. Her predictable care let him rest, eat, and communicate without fear that those needs would be treated as misbehavior.

School Advocacy

Candy stood beside Jazmine when school administrators wanted to punish disability-related behavior and pushed for accommodations. At home, she gave Elliot a quiet place to rest after those confrontations.

Cultural Identity and Kinship

Candy was a Black mother in the Montgomery area whose household included both her sons and Elliot, a mixed Black American and Puerto Rican child. She shared caregiving with Jazmine rather than taking over her role. Their friendship began when Candy believed Jazmine’s concerns about Elliot’s health, and it continued through childcare, school meetings, and the work of finding safe housing.

Their arrangement drew on Black Southern practices of shared child-rearing and chosen kinship. Candy claimed responsibility through repeated acts of care, while Jazmine remained Elliot’s mother and advocate. Listing Candy as his secondary school emergency contact made that family responsibility legible to an institution that might otherwise see her only as a neighbor or a friend’s parent.

Candy and Jazmine also confronted the racial and disability-based assumptions behind school labels such as “simple” and “slow.” Candy’s response was specific to Elliot: she joined Jazmine at meetings, challenged punishment for disability-related behavior, and insisted on food, rest, and sensory support rather than treating his needs as evidence of incapacity.

During the pandemic, Candy, Jazmine, and Melinda spoke together about their fear for Elliot and the unequal burdens facing Black families. Candy’s commitment to him remained personal and sustained, visible both in daily care and in the formal responsibility of being his secondary school emergency contact.

Shared History and Milestones

Early Childhood Caregiving: Ages Five to Seven, 2008–2010

From age five onward, Elliot spent significant portions of his days with Candy while Jazmine worked. He ate and rested alongside Miles and Noah, with quiet space available when he needed it. Candy’s understanding of his signals deepened over those years rather than appearing all at once.

School Advocacy: Childhood Through Age Thirteen

Candy was listed as Elliot’s secondary emergency contact, attended IEP meetings alongside Jazmine, and challenged administrators who wanted to punish his disability-related behavior. She pressed for sensory support, rest, and access to food at school, and she disputed teachers who called him “simple” or “slow.” Rather than controlling Elliot, she confronted the adults and policies that denied him support.

P.E. Near-Heatstroke Crisis: Age Eleven

When Elliot was eleven years old, he lost consciousness after becoming severely overheated during physical education. The school nurse assessed him as close to heatstroke and began cooling him before the episode progressed further. Noah stayed beside Elliot in the nurse’s office. After the school could not reach Jazmine, staff called Candy as Elliot’s secondary emergency contact; Candy contacted Jazmine, and they responded together.

Candy arrived first, with Jazmine following shortly afterward. When Elliot woke confused and panicking, her familiar voice and Noah’s presence helped him understand where he was and that he was being cared for.

Candy, Jazmine, and Micah took Elliot home and continued cooling him through nausea, severe joint pain, and exhaustion. The episode did not progress to heatstroke, and the family removed him from that P.E. class.

Housing Stability: Circa 2013–2014

When Elliot and Jazmine’s apartment became mold-infested and medically unsafe, Candy found a house with room for them; she and Micah made the purchase around 2013–2014. The attached suite had its own entrance and kitchen, giving Jazmine and Elliot their own space. Micah refinished a secondhand full-size bed for Elliot. The door into the main house remained open, so he could rest on Candy’s couch, be with Miles and Noah, or find Micah grilling dinner.

Refuge from Abuse

Throughout Elliot’s childhood and adolescence, Candy’s home remained his refuge from abuse at his half-brother Sean’s house and neglect at his father Reggie’s. When Elliot came back bruised and crying from visitation with Sean, Candy held him. When he crashed from exhaustion or pain, her couch gave him a place to rest. His rapid growth brought frequent hunger, and Candy fed him without shaming him or counting the cost.

Candy did not interrogate Elliot when he arrived hurt or shutting down. She gave him food, comfort, and space, trusting that he would tell her what he could when he was ready.

Teaching Miles and Noah

Through her care of Elliot, Candy taught her sons Miles and Noah to see a person beyond the labels others imposed, welcome someone who needed refuge, and make accommodations without resentment. They learned by watching her that chosen family carried real obligations: sharing food, making space, and protecting a brother’s right to rest and communicate in his own way.

The boys made blanket shelters for Elliot’s sensory regulation, shared muffins and apple juice without being asked, and learned to recognize when he needed quiet or help. These habits became part of their sibling relationship because Candy modeled the same care in the household’s daily life.

Partnership, Trust, and Crisis

Candy shared resources and caregiving with Jazmine without positioning herself above Elliot’s mother. When doctors and schools dismissed Jazmine’s concerns, Candy believed her and stood beside her. Elliot saw them work together for him, each bringing different strengths; he did not have to choose which woman he could trust.

Candy’s gentleness and protection belonged to the same relationship. She offered food before Elliot had to ask, covered him when he fell asleep on her couch, stayed with him through pain, and held him when he came back from Sean’s bruised and crying. She did not demand that he “toughen up” or make his needs easier for other people. The ease with which he could sleep in her home showed how safe he felt there, while her school advocacy showed him that an adult could confront the people and systems harming him.

During Elliot’s severe COVID-19 illness, Candy helped Jazmine and Melinda prepare the van for transport to UAB. She then drove with Micah and Noah behind the van carrying Elliot. At the hospital, she stayed nearby and held Noah when the family learned Elliot needed ventilation. She supported Miles’s flyer campaign asking the community to send cards and letters to Elliot, and later helped Jazmine ready his home for his return.

Changes and Continued Care

Economic Strain

When Micah was laid off around the time Elliot turned thirteen, the Jones household faced significant economic strain. Candy and Micah nevertheless continued feeding Elliot and making room for him in their home. The consistency mattered to a boy accustomed to having his needs treated as burdens, especially when resources were scarce.

Elliot’s Adolescence

As Elliot moved through adolescence, Sean’s abuse escalated and Elliot’s medical needs became more complex. The Jones household remained a refuge through high school. Candy continued offering the food, rest, and protection he needed without asking him to make himself less demanding to care for.

Geographic Distance

Elliot later moved from Alabama to New York City and, afterward, Baltimore. Candy and the Jones family remained part of his life through his marriage, parenthood, cancer treatment, and cardiac decline, even though they no longer shared a household or daily routine.

He carried lessons from Candy’s care into adulthood: his needs were not burdens, accommodation could be an act of love, and protection could coexist with gentleness.

Lasting Impact

As an adult, Elliot used the gentle structure Candy had modeled when caring for disabled adults and for his own children, Ariana and Adrian. Jazmine’s advocacy and Candy’s practical accommodation both remained part of the care he had grown up receiving.

Candy raised Miles and Noah alongside Elliot as a chosen son. All three watched her feed, protect, and make room for a child whose body and communication needed particular care. Miles and Noah carried that example into their own protection of Elliot.

During Elliot’s hospitalization in his senior year, Miles’s flyer campaign brought hundreds of cards and letters to the hospital. Candy supported his efforts, just as she had taught her sons to make room for Elliot and show up when he needed them.

Candy’s presence helped make that response possible without making her alone responsible for it. The cards reflected a wider network that had seen Elliot’s generosity, the Jones family’s care, and Jazmine’s sustained advocacy. Candy’s role remained concrete: she stayed with the family, helped with practical preparations, and continued caring for Elliot after he came home.

Relationships Family Relationships Parent-Child Relationships