“Look always forward … In last year’s nest there are no birds this year!” So proclaimed the swashbuckling idealist Don Quixote in the stage musical “Man of LaMancha,” one of Broadway’s most successful productions, based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes.

And it was the iconic pop star Carly Simon whose lyrics “These are the Good Old Days” helped propel her song “Anticipation” into a classic.

How are these two utterly different artistic works related? More so, how are they linked to the remarkable tale of a New London man, years ago deemed developmentally disabled and consequently frustrated with a grammar school and secondary school experience that left him feeling abandoned.

Simply put, it is a tale of an individual who chose to transcend the past as opposed to being consumed by it, and to look ahead in ways that would give him cause to regard his later years as promising ones.

Marc Rose was born in the 1950s, along with his twin brother Wayne. Both fell into the classification of “developmentally disabled,” finding the most fundamental of learning and living skills to be problematic beyond the norm. It was a time when schools were badly underfunded, teachers grotesquely underpaid and social programs sparse. Alternative schools offered little more.

“They never really taught me anything,” Rose recalled during an interview at Washington Street Coffee House. “There were so many other people in the classes, and we all needed so much help, it seemed like they just didn’t have time for us.”

His face coarse and worn with years of unrelenting effort and strain, Rose has managed to retain a glow more akin to that of an eager youth. In spite of disappointments with school years he found unfulfilling, he instead managed to take life head–on and make something of it.

An active man with a variety of hobbies including bicycling, tennis, bowling, drawing, music, and a passion for animal care, he also held down a full-time job (acquired through state assistance) for 35 years as a kitchen worker at Connecticut College. Rose rarely missed a day – biking there even during inclement weather – and earned the respect of coworkers and clientele.

His retirement in January 2016 culminated in a gracious farewell party thrown by the college.

Now Rose wants to finish a quest that eluded him during his childhood and teenage school years, and even during a brief stint with adult education that did not pan out.

He yearns to be a reader.

“Reading and math are two things I really wanted to learn, but I had trouble following, so they all kind of just gave up on me,” he said. “I don’t think teachers had enough patience with me because I had so much trouble understanding everything, so I never really learned how to read.”

Enter the Eastern Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit, state-sponsored organization based in Waterford. Its function is to serve the developmentally disabled by assigning carefully chosen support staff to specific individuals.

Rose has been a client of ECDC for 15 years, learning to adapt more effectively to life’s pressing demands while developing better day-to-day skills. And in the past two years, somewhat of an angel has come on board in helping him along.

Amanda Kulos of Norwich, a former aquatics director for the Town of Groton Parks & Recreation Department, and onetime support staff member at Buckingham Community Services in New London, was later hired by ECDC.

“I loved my work with the town of Groton,” Kulos said. “I found the staff there very supportive and dedicated to the value of recreation in people’s lives. It was a shame to see it all end when we lost the facility that enabled us to run a Therapy Swim program.”

A quiet and pensive woman, Kulos commands a stunning range of personal activities of her own – hoop dancing with her own performance company, Fire Hooping; taking adult gymnastics at New London Athletics Center on Broad Street; and she also performs trapeze, Yoga, and plays a variety of string instruments as well.

Kulos harbors the essential traits required for effective teaching: preparation, structure and, above all, compassion. Watching her demonstrate these traits while mentoring Rose – one of several ECDC clients assigned her – makes it very clear why she was hired.

“The reward is in connecting with my clients,” said Kulos, fit and lithe enough to work in any health or athletic center. But this soft-spoken young woman’s passion lies most definitely in the gentle craft of drawing fulfillment out of those who must struggle constantly for it.

“Seeing someone transcending previous obstacles and emerging as a functioning adult takes you beyond your role as an authority figure and more into one of friendship and respect,” she said. “Marc is so dedicated, always working, always striving for those skills he desperately wants to master.”

Kulos’ responsibilities with her clients also include assisting them with job applications, paying bills, pumping gas, handling an ATM machine – those daily demands most people take for granted as commonplace activities – and even showing up at clients’ places of employment and helping them perform their jobs, or helping with studies if they’re taking classes.

Each client has what is known as an individualized plan. Rose’s did not include reading, but in his time working with Kulos he brought up what it meant to him to finally be able to read properly.

“So I created a reading plan for Marc. If it’s important to him, then we’ll pursue it,” she said. And pursue it they do. On many a given day, Rose and Amanda Kulos can be seen over coffee and snacks at Washington Street Coffee House, intensively engaged in a selection of fundamental reading materials … and the struggle, replete with moments of triumph, is a sight to behold.

“Marc wants this very badly, and he’s getting it, too,” Kulos said.

“I want to be able to read the whole newspaper someday,” Rose said. “It’s important to know what’s going on around you.”