BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - A Louisiana woman was brought to tears after her father captured a heartwarming moment between a store employee and her little brother while shopping at a Rouse's grocery store.
In a video post shared to Facebook, Delaney Alwosaibi says her father was at a Baton Rouge area Rouses with family when her little brother, Jack Ryan Edwards, 17, who she affectionately calls Ziggy, expressed an interest in stocking the shelves. Jack, who is on the autism spectrum, was aided by a store employee, who helped him stock shelves for over 30 minutes, encouraging him as he finished each task.
"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," said Alwosaibi. "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,'" she said.
Within hours, the Facebook post was shared over 1,500 times and had amassed nearly 4,000 likes. Alwosaibi says she's overwhelmed by the response.
"I’ve just been crying happy tears for hours and I’m in shock at the response the video has gotten. There’s so much ugly in this world we live in, but today gave me a swift kick and reminder that there are still great people out there. Humble people, kind people, patient people, accepting people. Jordan showed that and all of the kind comments have proven it even further. The support for both of them is astounding. On one hand, you have this young man who took the time out of his day to make A stranger’s day better. He could have completed his work quicker, but he didn’t care. That’s true character in my book. On the other hand, you have complete strangers showing so much genuine love and support for my baby brother."
Jack Ryan and I also have another brother who is on the autism spectrum and this kind of awareness and acceptance means everything to my family and I. I haven’t met Jordan yet, but I hope to as soon as possible. He thought he was just letting a kid put orange juice in a cooler, but it was so much more than that," Alwosaibi said.
In the video, the employee, Jordan Taylor, 20, can be heard discussing plans to re-enroll in school. An outpouring of support from Facebook users wishing to support Taylor both emotionally and financially continues to grow. Alwosaibi shared a few ideas for Jordan's future.
"I know Jordan mentioned he wants to go back to school. My mom and I are both special education teachers and I have to say, if he does go on to go to college I might put a bug in his ear to pursue that path because people like my brothers and my students need people like him around," Alwosaibi said.
On Tuesday, Alwosaibi got to meet Jordan.
"To me, I've always heard the things people do when no one is watching is their true character and you didn't know how many people were going to end up seeing you do that, you just did it out of the kindness of your heart," Alwosaibi said to Jordan.
"I wasn't surprised because that's how he's always been. That's always been his nature, but I was extremely proud, really, really proud," said Jordan's mother, Teresa Taylor.
Teresa also works at Rouses, at the Bluebonnet location. She says she's the one who instilled those values in him. "Always help others when you can," Jordan said, referring to what his mother taught him as a child.
And that's what he did Sunday when he says Edwards came to him asking for orange juice and then stood there watching him. "Something in the back of my mind was just like, 'Ask if he wants to help you,'" said Taylor.
So why did the Rouses employee do it?
"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 happy putting the juices up and I was just happy that I could make someone else happy and make their day," said Jordan.
As Jordan's mother said, that's who her son is, with a heart of gold. His deed just happened to be caught on video, which went viral, but Taylor didn't do it for the attention. "Never pictured all this would happen. I was just being me, that's it. I just wanted to help somebody out, enjoy something," said Jordan as he wiped away tears.
So as the two started stocking shelves again on Tuesday, Jordan did not have much to say, but the priceless smile on his face said what words would never be able to say.
Copyright 2018 WAFB. All rights reserved.
