By David Benoit
Special to the Reporter

This is a story about a father and a son. The father is in the middle of a fight to try and prolong his life, the son in a battle that will never end. Each of them needs the other.

Chris "Tiger" Stockbridge has been all over the Boston Herald this past month, speaking about the stomach surgery he is hoping to undergo to improve his life, but it was his youngest son Chris Jr. who held the spotlight this Tuesday night at an Autism fundraiser held in his name.

Chris the younger is 10-years old and if you didn't know it before you meet him, you might not even realize he is autistic himself. In fact, his father says that he likes to forget he has the condition.

"It's one of the funny things when people ask him about the fundraiser he always says 'Yeah, that was when I used to have Autism,'" Tiger says. "He thinks it's like a cold he got over."

Neither of them is shy in the least bit. Both are ready to open up and share their feelings and private lives with anyone, especially if there are altruistic motives.

"I want to help some kids with Autism," Chris said, and then when his father lightly probed him, he announced "I have PDD [Pervasive Developmental Disorder]. Sometimes it changes the way I act. Sometimes I have to take medication."

Chris is in the fifth grade at the Mason Elementary School where, his teachers say, he loves numbers and loves to write. At the fundraiser they had a copy of a 42 page book he had written about his cats and his family vacation to New Hampshire. He smiles broadly as he shows off the book, and talks about how he memorized where each exit on Interstate 93 goes and then wrote them all down in order in his book. It's a chronicle not only of his trip but of his mind &endash; his creative ability is evident on every page. Intelligence is the one word everyone jumps to when speaking about Chris Jr..

"He's a good kid. I'm extremely proud of his intelligence," says his uncle and godfather Mike Mackan.

"He's unbelievable, he can really spin a story. I think he might be a novelist some day," says his grandmother Jo Spencer. "He has an unchallenged imagination. It doesn't come from what he is told to think about, it comes from inside."

For Tiger, his weight problem has taken a large part of his life, and he's hoping that soon he will be able to put it behind him and live a healthier lifestyle, in no small part because of Chris.

"One thing a lot of people didn't know was my son Christopher was the inspiration behind me trying to do the weight loss thing," Tiger recalls. "One day he did something and I was yelling at him and he told me "Hey shut up, Chubby" and I realized I needed to do something."

So at the Blarney Stone on Tuesday night, Tiger didn't eat any of the pizza that was served or the buffalo wings, or cookies. Several weeks ago, he was on an all out binge &endash; a sort of bachelor party for his stomach before it underwent Bariatric surgery. Then his doctors ordered him to lose weight fast. The surgery will immediately reduce his weight problem and his appetite and hopefully alleviate his problems of high blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. He needs all of this so that he can be around to help his son through a life that might not be too easy.

"One of the hardest things about being a parent of a child with autism and wondering what happens when I'm not around anymore, you have a child that is probably going need care for his entire life," Tiger says. "And the hardest thing I think about is what is going to happen if I am gone, and that's one of the reasons that I decided to have this surgery."

Chris Jr. hopes the surgery will help his dad feel better.

"I'm glad he's losing weight because he should," he says as he stands with his father at the Blarney Stone. "I want to see what he feels like when he's 180 pounds."

The money raised Tuesday night is going to go to the Autism Speaks Foundation and the walk they sponsor every year. The Stockbridges raised money mostly with the silent auction they had that featured such diverse goods as a David Ortiz signed 2004 World Series baseball and a painting of the Dorchester Day parade. The fundraiser brought in $7,225 between the auction and a raffle, all of which will go into Chris' walking team.

They all hope that the money will help out some kids that have it worse off than their son.

"I mean you look out there, and everyone knows someone with Autism," says Tiger. "These kids require so much care that I just want to do everything I can for them."