When you’re a parent to a child with autism, completing the most mundane tasks can be a challenge, and oftentimes strangers are less than sympathetic.
One mom, Julie Watts, knows this to be true, but a recent encounter with a kindhearted farmer renewed her faith in her fellow man, and his actions remind us all what the Christmas spirit truly is!
Meet Julie and her son, Ben.
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As Julie explained on Facebook, she took her son Ben with her to pick out a Christmas tree. They were supposed to grab a pre-cut Christmas tree from Roehler’s Tree Farm and then go eat.
The problem? Her young son had an entirely different understanding of how things were supposed to go.
“Apparently, my son had a thought in his head that we were going to go wander the fields admiring & comparing trees, then finally choose the premier tree to which a man with a saw would come teetering out of the woods and cut it down… Then we’d hoist it on our backs so heftily and march in from the field covered in sawdust and sweat, tying it to the top of our car with pride and driving home whilst singing carols…â€
This sounds very much like something you’d see in a holiday movie, and unfortunately Ben didn’t know this practice isn’t too common today. As a result, Ben believed the pre-cut trees were fakes and soon went into a meltdown.
The heartbreaking situation made Julie give up on getting a tree that day. She’d even started to drive away when Kevin of Roehler’s Tree farm stopped her.
Once Julie explained to Kevin what was wrong, the farmer hatched a brilliant plan. After asking Julie which tree she wanted, he offered to carry the tree out into the field where she and her son could “happen upon it.” Then he’d pretend to cut it down and haul it back for them. “Then that man stunned me forever and saved everything,” said Julie.
Julie was touched by Kevin’s kindness and Ben was thrilled to get his “real” Christmas tree experience. Julie gushed, “I could not name another place right now that I could imagine such ‘above & beyond’ service like Roehler’s provided tonight.”
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It may have seemed like a lot of trouble, but this memorable gesture saved one little boy’s Christmas and proved that there are still people who embody the holiday spirit.
After the story went viral, Kevin said in an interview that he didn’t even realize Ben had autism. To him, this was simply an opportunity to spread a little love and bring a brighten one family’s day with some Christmas cheer.
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Bravo, Kevin!
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