Apple Employee Helped Mom After Autistic Son With Down Syndrome Crashed Into Wall

(Illustration - Getty Images | Kena Betancur)

When a lady visited an Apple store in Tennessee to buy a new iPad one day with her then-9-year-old son who has special needs, her child suddenly took flight and hit a glass wall hard. The sudden incident caused everyone in the store to stare at the two of them.

The anxious mom felt helpless in the face of this until a kindhearted employee did something that made her feel immensely grateful.

LynnMarie Rink’s son was born with Down syndrome, and he was diagnosed with autism at the age of 6. He could not talk clearly and was hardly able to learn words until he got an iPad. However, his iPad broke when he was 9 years old.

Rink knew she had to get a new one for him.

When both mother and son went to the Green Hills mall in Nashville to drop by the Apple store in January 2016, James suddenly broke free of his mom’s grip and bolted to the door. He hit a glass wall so hard that he caused a huge “bang!”

“The sound was so horrifying and everybody turned to look. I stood there frozen and thought for sure he was going to be covered with blood,” Rink said as per The Daily Mail.

“James has a high tolerance for pain and when I got to him he just poked out his lip and a few tears fell,” she further continued.

Rink then sat on the floor with her son. That was when Andrew Wall, a young man who used to work at the Apple store, came to offer assistance.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “What can I do for you?”

“I think it was at this point that he realized James had special needs,” Rick wrote in a Facebook post.

“Well, we actually came here today to buy an iPad which was donated to James, but if we’re going to proceed would you be willing to sell it to us and set it up … down here on the floor?” Rink recalled in the post.

Illustration - Getty Images | Kena Betancur

“It was such a simple act. He just sat down and that’s all that James and I needed,” Rink said.

As it wasn’t so easy to settle down at the time of the incident, which attracted some attention, for Wall to sit down and join James and Rink on the floor meant a lot. It helped her calm down considerably.

“There are no words to accurately describe how grateful I am that he took the time to ‘meet us right where we were,'” she wrote.

“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.”

The employee even shared a “fist bump” with James.

“Nobody gets how powerful this moment was,” Rink said.

Rink later connected with the employee via Facebook, and Wall told her the story she shared about her Apple store experience with him had made his day.

“I want to say thank you so much for those kind words!” Rink shared on Facebook. “I began working at Apple in hopes of having fulfilling moments like this. Post Apple my hopes are to work within the realm of youth counseling. Thanks again for making my day!”

In April 2016, Rink was reunited with Wall. In a Facebook post, she wrote: “So I lost my phone earbuds on my last trip… Went to buy some new ones and look who I ran into! Only the best Apple store employee ever!… Reunited! ! this is the first time I’ve seen him since our story went viral back in January! He still rocks! #WrapYourHeartAroundIt" 

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