Meeting grown up autism .

Today I had the most amazing encounter.
Me and my sister walked into Subway for breakfast and while we were ordering we spotted this young man sitting alone.
You couldn't help but notice him. He was flicking his ears every few seconds and checking his watch too. He spoke to everyone that came in and told a passing customer to enjoy their food.

5 minutes in there and we both knew. This was a young adult with autism. We sat down and within a few minutes he turned around and said to Joyce that she was gorgeous!!
He came over and sat by us and by God could this fella chat!!! We couldn't get a word in with him. 😂😂😂
He was talking to us about his books and the pictures he had with him. All about his favourite movies and his childhood.
I asked him where he was from... he had the strongest American accent but I wasn't surprised when he said Youghal. How many of your kids talk in an accent? He told us it was from watching too much tv. And then he said it... I have autism.

Maybe he didn't realise we knew but we did. Here was this young man. Happy, polite, well able to speak and hold eye contact but I found it so sad. You couldn't hide his traits.
He was just sitting there dying for a conversation. A security guard that was in the queue with us ignored him and laughed when he asked him where he worked. He was quite rude being honest, but this guy didn't even seem to notice.
He was such a nice fella.
And yes he talked too much about the latest Alien V's Predator movie and the star wars films but we didn't mind.
We were both thinking the same thing... I hope someone will be this nice to Logan or Kirsty in years to come if they are like him. He must have told Joyce she was gorgeous 10 times!! 😂😂😂

I told him about my situation and he said to me
" Don't let your kids go down the wrong path. Teach them to respect their special need and respect others".

Then he said he likes to compare people with autism to the mutants in X men because of their special gifts and talents. So he was only delighted to hear that Logan was named after the Wolverine from X men, James Logan!!
(That's a true story... Daddy is a huge fan.👌👌👌 )

After we left I'm sure he sat there and waited for more people. He had told us he liked to come to Subway most days as the staff were nice to him.
I don't know any autism parent that doesn't worry about the future. You worry will they be accepted and will people be cruel to them? He said plenty people had been cruel to him and then he stopped mid conversation and told us to listen to the song that was playing on the radio.
It was Kelly Clarkson " what doesn't kill you makes you stronger ". 😊😊😊
I swear you couldn't make this up!! We were skitting at him. He was parting all his wisdom on us. When we got up to leave he shook our hands and said he hoped to see us again.

I've been thinking about him all day.
I hope some day if my Kirsty is sitting in a cafe reading a book and flapping her hands or if Logan is banging his ears and watching an IPad somewhere they won't get a rude security guard. I hope they get someone like me or Joyce who will be respectful and nice.
It was nothing to us but I'm sure it meant a lot to him.