My thoughts on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's help with Willowbrook State School as an autistic person. 🤍

[Ingryd Medeiros]

Hi everyone. I'm Ingryd, an autistic person and a huge John Lennon fan. I just wanted to share with our community how sweet and revolutionary John and Yoko were at the One to One concerts to benefit Willowbrook State School. Willowbrook was a school for children with intellectual and physical disabilities founded in the 19th century. It was an option for families who didn't know how to help their children with special needs. However, in 1972, the journalist Geraldo Rivera accused the school of torturing the children and not helping them as they needed, using cruel, medieval methods as therapy. With the accusation, Yoko contacted Geraldo and offered to help them: financially and mainly with awareness for people with various disabilities.

There are many things to consider: This was in 1972, less than 30 years after Nazis experimented on disabled children and killed those who needed more support! John and Yoko opened their hearts to people like me and did something they wouldn't normally do to help those who didn't have the space to ask for help.

This is more than just concerts, audience and culture, it is humanity, it is seeing that others needed them and DID something with all their love so that Willowbrook State School could give dignity and an easier life to the underdog, the hurt and the fragile.

I'm not only thrilled by this, I'm also proud to see that happened.

Thank you John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Thank you for seeing us, helping us and being so generous.

Power to the people, to EVERY people, "even" for us. For everyone. ️

 

[LetTheFourWindsBlow]

Willowbrook definitely is a dark reminder of how neurodivergent people and people with disabilities were often treated in a not-so-long-ago past. It’s shocking how much has changed since then, even though there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Have you seen the film Crip Camp? It’s a spectacular documentary on Netflix that explores the experiences at a summer camp in NY for teens with disabilities and the disability rights movement of the 60s/70s/80s, etc. Such an amazing film. It of course features Willowbrook. When I first watched it, one of my first thoughts was definitely of the One-to-One concerts! While I think everyone should watch it in general, I think Lennon fans especially should for the broader context of the One-to-One shows!

Thanks for your thoughts, Ingryd!!

Will

 

[Ingryd Medeiros]

Willowbrook definitely is a dark reminder of how neurodivergent people and people with disabilities were often treated in a not-so-long-ago past. It’s shocking how much has changed since then, even though there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Have you seen the film Crip Camp? It’s a spectacular documentary on Netflix that explores the experiences at a summer camp in NY for teens with disabilities and the disability rights movement of the 60s/70s/80s, etc. Such an amazing film. It of course features Willowbrook. When I first watched it, one of my first thoughts was definitely of the One-to-One concerts! While I think everyone should watch it in general, I think Lennon fans especially should for the broader context of the One-to-One shows!

Thanks for your thoughts, Ingryd!!

Will

Thank you, I definitely will take a look!

 

[JaneSmith]

Hi everyone. I'm Ingryd, an autistic person and a huge John Lennon fan. I just wanted to share with our community how sweet and revolutionary John and Yoko were at the One to One concerts to benefit Willowbrook State School. Willowbrook was a school for children with intellectual and physical disabilities founded in the 19th century. It was an option for families who didn't know how to help their children with special needs. However, in 1972, the journalist Geraldo Rivera accused the school of torturing the children and not helping them as they needed, using cruel, medieval methods as therapy. With the accusation, Yoko contacted Geraldo and offered to help them: financially and mainly with awareness for people with various disabilities.

There are many things to consider: This was in 1972, less than 30 years after Nazis experimented on disabled children and killed those who needed more support! John and Yoko opened their hearts to people like me and did something they wouldn't normally do to help those who didn't have the space to ask for help.

This is more than just concerts, audience and culture, it is humanity, it is seeing that others needed them and DID something with all their love so that Willowbrook State School could give dignity and an easier life to the underdog, the hurt and the fragile.

I'm not only thrilled by this, I'm also proud to see that happened.

Thank you John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Thank you for seeing us, helping us and being so generous.

Power to the people, to EVERY people, "even" for us. For everyone. ️

Knowing that story for so long has filled my soul and my heart with so much love, wisdom, and an indescribable feeling, I will always be grateful for everything they did, they inspired me every day of life and motivates me to so many things, knowing that people like them made great fights and put so much effort into everything they did, their concern for people who needed their help, it's simply my driving force to do so many things in life. Thank you, Ingryd, for sharing your feeling and this incredible story once again that everyone deserves to know all this and the great things they have done, always grateful with all my soul to them

 

[ecclesofficial]

Thank you for saying this, Ingryd. I think it’s so important to emphasise just why the One to One concerts took place and what Yoko and John were saying when they were performing those incredible songs. I’ve seen a large number of people who have seen the One to One film saying that until they watched it they had no idea about Willowbrook - and thankfully the film shows all of the disgusting details of the treatment of the children there. It’s astounding how it took two artists, neither originally even from the U.S., to take a public stance against this treatment, with how much it had been ignored otherwise.

As an autistic person myself also I really cannot help but see how these conditions for children (and anyone who needs help from others) are not entirely eradicated today - and we need voices like Yoko and John’s to make it known that it is completely unacceptable.

 

[Stardust]

I did not know that the One to One concerts in 1972 were to raise money to benefit children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including children at Willowbrook State School. I recently watched the expose of Willowbrook by Geraldo Rivera, and read a number of articles on the abuse and even medical experimentation at Willowbrook. I also read that adults were housed at Willowbrook, not just children.
I was diagnosed with ASD-1 autism this past May 2025. After being misdiagnosed for too many years, it was autism all along. I struggle with social cues, sensory overload, jokes, changes in my environment, being misunderstood, and delayed auditory processing, among other things. I was bullied relentlessly in my childhood and even as an adult. The positive autistic traits I love are hyper focus, pattern recognition, special
Interests and other wonderful and exciting ‘superpowers.’
I have experienced discrimination by neurotypical people and even have been denied access to government services including courtroom access, in the USA, violating the American with Disabilities Act. To see how the children at Willowbrook State School were neglected and abused doesn’t surprise me, and we have come a long way in the USA and other countries. But there is still neglect and abuse and discrimination against ‘disabled’ people, just because we perceive the world differently or need extra help to function in this world.
I always wondered why I was being treated with unexplained hatred and disrespect and I prayed to the universe to give me the answer. Then finally, when I was about to give up, my therapist diagnosed me with autism this year! I understand I’m perceived as different or strange or whatever word ‘they’ want to use to describe me. Knowing my diagnosis has been a great relief, as now I have words to go with my feelings and behaviors and ways to cope with my autism I didn’t know existed until my diagnosis.
I wish my Mom and Dad had lived to understand what was going on with me, but I’m sure where they are, they know.
The One to One concerts are important to all of us. Hopefully we can advocate in the present day and future to help children and adults with autism and other neurodevelopmental, physical and mental health disabilities have equal rights and services in the world.

Thank you Yoko & John!