A Tennessee Apple store employee received all praises after becoming a hero for a 9-year-old boy with Autism. The mother of the boy expressed her gratitude for what the employee did in a Facebook post.
James, a 9-year old boy suffers from both Down syndrome and autism. While LynnMarie Rink, the child's mother, accompanied her son to an Apple store on Jan. 21 to buy him an Ipad, James got too excited as he might have seen something interesting outside and ran fast towards the door. The problem is, he hit the glass wall instead.
The boy flew backward onto the floor as he hit the Apple store's glass wall in a mall at Green Hills. All the shoppers who witnessed the accident froze as a loud thud was heard as he hit the glass and the floor.
An employee, Andrew Wall, came to Rink and her son. He asked LynnMarie if they were okay and when she told him if they could finish the transaction on the floor so as not to further upset James.
"Your awesome employee sat with James on the floor of the store and set up the new iPad. There are no words to accurately describe how grateful I am that he took the time to 'meet us right where we were," LynnMarie wrote in a Facebook post.
Wall sat down on the floor with James and helped him set up his new iPad.
"There are no words to accurately describe how grateful I am that he took the time to 'meet us right where we were.' He didn't have to sit down on the floor with us. He could have easily waited for us to stand. Could have easily waited for us to come back another day. But he hung out with us in the midst of our pain," she added.
LynnMarie said that James had his first iPad when he was just 3 years old. Because of his condition, the iPad served not only as his toy and a device to play videos, but also a means for him to communicate. James suffers from Down syndrome at birth and was diagnosed with autism when he was 6 years old. His first iPad, however, stopped working so they needed to buy him a new one.
Her friend noticed that her iPhone 5 was not in a good condition and told her that it became James' replacement of his broken iPad.
"To make a long story a bit shorter, that friend happens to be on the board of a charitable organization, The Fiona Rose Murphey Foundation Charitable Trust, who graciously offered to provide James with a much needed new iPad," LynnMarie explained.
She thanked all who helped her get an iPad for her son, The Fiona Rose Murphey Foundation Charitable Trust, the Apple Store at the mall in Green Hills and Andrew Wall, the employee who extended his help to her son with special needs.
