Jordan Taylor was just working at his job at a Rouse’s Market in Baton Rouge, Louisiana when he received a kind gesture from a local family.
Jordan Taylor, 20, is an employee at Rouse’s Market and was stocking the orange juice bottles on the shelf when he noticed someone watching him.
Jack Ryan Edwards, 17, was there with his father, Sid, shopping for groceries when he stopped to watch Jordan do his job.
Jack is diagnosed with autism that’s why it wasn’t unusual for Jack Ryan to become fixated on different things. Sid thought he just wanted to buy some juice.
Jordan thought the same thing that’s why he gave Jack a bottle of the orange juice but Jack didn’t take it. In fact, he didn’t get any reaction from Jack. He restocked the orange juice and thought that was done.
But Jack remained in his spot and continued to watch Jordan.
That’s when something clicked in Jordan’s head. He asked Jack if he wanted to help him restock the shelves.
“Something in the back of my mind was just like, ‘Ask if he wants to help you,'” Jordan said.
So Jordan asked Jack if he wanted to help. Jack, with his limited verbal communication, repeated what Jordan said.
Jordan handed him an orange juice bottle and they spent the next 30 minutes restocking shelves.
“It was a big deal,” Sid said of Jack’s experience. “To me, when you go to a grocery store with an autistic kid, especially when they’re young, people don’t understand, they’re not very accepting. Somehow this young man reached my son … he went into Jack Ryan’s world.”
“I was just being me, that’s it. I just wanted to help somebody out, enjoy something,” Jordan said.
He knew his question meant more than it was when he saw Sid’s reaction.
“If you would have flipped the camera, you would have seen his dad’s face. It said it all. He was just happy and he [Jack Ryan] was [happily] putting the juices up and I was just happy that I could make someone else happy and make their day,” Jordan said.
Delaney was so moved by Jordan’s patience.
“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,” Delaney said. “It might seem like nothing to others, but as you can hear my dad say in the video, ‘I’m watching a miracle right now.'”
And that’s exactly what Delaney did.
“It’s so much that you can’t even like put it into words,” Jordan said. “Like all you can say is thank you but thank you don’t mean enough to the people cause it’s so much that went into it.”
And it’s all because he simply asked a teenager if he wanted to help him.
“There’s a lot that’s wrong in the world, but to know that that humanity exists is truly rare,” Delaney said. “[Jordan] was just being him, and boy if we had more of hims in the world, how would great that be?”
And now, every time Jack returns to Rouse’s Market with his family, he always has a big smile on his face.
“Because of Jordan, a conversation about inclusivity in the workforce for people with disabilities has been started not only across the nation but all over the world,” Delaney wrote. “I hope Jordan and [Jack Ryan’s] story inspires others to include those that are different, across all settings and in all parts of life.”
Watch the video below to see how a young man changed a family and a nation with just one question.
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