‘Just Beautiful’: Watch This Man's Kindness Toward Autistic Teen

BATON ROUGE, LA — In a society that doesn’t always treat disabled people with respect, we should all be more like Jordan Taylor, a 20-year-old who works at a Baton Rouge grocery store and made the world a little brighter for an autistic teen.

Sid Edwards took his son, Jack Ryan, along with him when he went to Rouses Market last weekend to pick up a handful of items. It was going to be a quick trip, but it lasted quite a bit longer due to what Edwards calls “a miracle.”

Jack Ryan, 17, is on the autism spectrum. He doesn’t talk much and doesn’t devote his attention to activities for long. Being in public can be an agonizing experience for him. But when he saw Rouses employee Jordan Taylor, 20, stocking shelves with orange juice, Jack Ryan was mesmerized.

He began pointing at the crates containing juice bottles, which Edwards interpreted to mean his son wanted one. Edwards put a bottle in their shopping basket, but Jack Ryan continued to look at the crate.

Though Jack Ryan never said he wanted to help, “something in the back of my mind was just like, ‘ask if he wants to help you,’ ” Taylor told television station WAFB.

Soon, they were working in tandem, stocking the juice shelves in an easy rhythm.

“He was looking very amazed, like one day he wished he could do it,” Taylor told The Advocate. “So, I just wanted to give him the experience of doing it with me.”

The two worked together for about 10 minutes until Edwards decided they needed to move along. But Jack Ryan wasn’t having it and pulled his father back to the aisle where Taylor was working a couple more times. They worked together for about 30 minutes, during which Edwards asked if he could record the experience with his cellphone.

That’s when Edwards called what he was seeing “a miracle.” Jack Ryan usually doesn’t focus on an activity that long, and strangers aren’t always nice to him.

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“The guy’s patience and time with Jack Ryan was just beautiful,” Edwards told The Advocate. “He talked to him. He encouraged him. He worked with him.”

Too often, Edwards said, people aren’t understanding of autistic kids.

“This guy reached out,” Edwards, the head football coach at Central High School, told The Advocate. “That’s what I think is special. In a world where our kids don’t fit in, here was a guy out of nowhere that made him fit in for that brief moment.”

Edwards’ daughter, Delaney Alwosaibi, posted her dad's videos on Facebook and called Taylor a “stand up young man.”

“We all know autism makes going out difficult, and sometimes grocery stores can be a challenge,” she wrote. “This young man took the time to slow down and allow Jack Ryan to help for over 30 minutes, guiding him as he finished his task.

“He could have ignored him. He could have made an excuse and said he couldn’t allow him to help. Instead, he let him have his moment and in turn gave my family a moment we will never forget.”

Alwosaibi’s post has been widely viewed and shared. In thousands of comments, Taylor is hailed as a genuine hero whose kindness all of us should emulate — though Taylor told WAFB he didn’t do anything special and was “just happy that [he] could make someone else happy and make their day.”

Alwosaibi told The Advocate the response to the young man’s kindness has been “just overwhelming.”

“I think it’s because it was such a genuine moment. It’s raw. It wasn’t set up or anything,” she said. “Jordan didn’t do that because he thought my dad would pull out the camera and film it. My dad just pulled out the camera to film it to send it to me and my brother.”

During their conversation, Taylor told Edwards he hopes to earn enough money to go to college.

As a way of saying thank you to Taylor for his kindness to her brother, whose nickname is Ziggy, Alwosaibi set up a GoFundMe campaign to help him raise the money he needs to pay college tuition. Within hours, nearly half of the $10,000 goal had been met.

“Jordan told me he loves math and would like to possibly be an educator someday,” wrote Alwosaibi, a teacher herself. “All I know is, whatever he decides to do he will excel! Thank you to Jordan for what you did for our Ziggy, we will never forget!”

Here are the videos:

Image courtesy of Delaney Alwosaibi