Young Darach from Ireland lives with Fragile X Syndrome and autism. 

 

To help him get by without feeling overwhelmed, he has a helper in the form of Cassie, a beautiful assistance dog who accompanies him whenever he goes out. 

 

Cassie even goes to restaurants with the family to help put young Darach at ease. 

 

Recently, the family - en route back from seeing a play in Dublin - stopped for a bite to eat at Bistro 53 in the town of Maynooth, Kildare.

 

But before long, chaos ensued. 

 

"Darach always has an orange juice when we eat out, it's just part of the deal and it arrived swiftly. All good so far," Darach's mum explained on Facebook. 

 

 

 

"But as we were ordering our food, Cassie stretched under the table, knocked it a little, and the whole glass of juice tipped into Darach's lap."

 

"He lost it immediately, straight into meltdown, hitting his head and crying...Thankfully he calmed down quickly and the waiter produced a replacement juice with a strawberry perched on the edge like a cocktail to jazz it up."

 

While that was nice of the waiter, the generosity didn't stop there. Towards the end of the dinner, Darach's mum asked for the bill and was stunned when the waiter replied that they owed nothing: he would pay for their entire meal.

 

"I was sure I was hearing him wrong!," she wrote. "But his colleague too insisted the delicious meal was on them. Steak, crab claws, salad! They were so kind."

 

"We left what cash we had so at least they wouldn't be out of pocket for the ingredients of our meal."

 

While this gesture was incredibly generous, Darach's mum said it was the waiter's kind words that touched her the most.

 

 

"The gesture meant a lot to us but the biggest deal was when he looked me in the eyes and said, 'I want you to know you can always come here to our restaurant. Come back any time and you will always be welcome."

 

"His kind words brought tears to me eyes. Navigating the world with someone with special needs can make you excruciatingly self-conscious of others' reactions and judgements but they made sure we knew it was OK to be in a nice restaurant even when we're a bit ragged, need to bring an assistant dog, with a risk of inappropriate behaviours and public meltdown."

 

The touching story has been shared thousands of times on Facebook. You can read more about Cassie and Darach here: https://www.facebook.com/Assistance-Dog-Cassie-436920783092403/?fref=photo

 

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