I once spent, as a tyke several visits in an Estate in Old Greenwich CT, saw many of the Dog-Shi**ers as would have warmed the cockles of this contrarian-extrordinaire [That is: the pomposity of some of the $$$'d Ones or just their lesser taking-for-granted er. laissez faire view of us plebes].

The doyenne of this Manse was enanoured of moi--at age ~9, for the fact that I could communicate with her distressed son (likely a case of what today would be lumped into the many varieties of autism). I see now that she was genuine in appreciating the fact that (I would-as well as 'could') treat Alan as just another friend without *patronizing this gentle/disabled 'older kid'/think he may have been ~20ish at the time. He died not long after these visits; never learned details of this early-Exit.
* Didn't know that word, but even a 9-yo groks to fullness when That is happening, (while many 'adults' never do grok-to-fullness .. quite a lot).

And I learned to swim there, in Long Island Sound--bonus.

Carrion.. sometimes it masquerades as Patronizing, eh?