Thank You to the Kroger Clerk That Went above & Beyond

There used to be a time when the thought of taking Dominic to the grocery store would immediately make my stomach tense because I knew there would be the inevitable Autistic  “meltdown” at the checkout. And while I typically shop when he is in school, a few months ago I decided to take Dominic with me to the local Kroger grocery store. 

I called it a “field trip” and I let him carry my “list” and push the cart. We were in there quite a while loading up the cart. The store was surprisingly empty around the time we went and when we went to check out, there was a lane open with no one ahead of us. I recognized the clerk at the register. I love going to her lane because she is always happy and likes to chat—just like I do!

Dominic helped me put all the items on the conveyor belt and then we both walked towards the clerk to get ready to pay. I made the comment that we were loading up for school (lots of granola bars and snacks). She looked right at Dominic and said, “So, what grade are you going into?” When he didn’t immediately answer, I turned to Dominic and said, “She asked you a question, can you answer her?” Dominic started getting kind of flustered and said, “No, it’s Saturday morning.” That’s what he says when he doesn’t want to and/or doesn’t know how to answer a question. It’s a line from an old episode of Barney. “Scripting” is Dominic’s fall back mechanism when he isn’t sure of how to respond.

The clerk then asked Dominic another question and again he said, “No, it’s Saturday morning.” I then said to her, “He has Autism and isn’t able to answer you. He is in tenth grade.” She looked right at me, smiled and said something along the lines of, “Yes, I know he has Autism. I wanted to ask him those questions.”

This awesome gal was making the extra effort to have an interaction with Dominic. She didn’t have to talk to Dominic, she wanted to talk to him.

Wow, just wow. For once in my life, I was speechless! That doesn’t happen very often!! Thanks so much to the Kroger clerk, you not only made my day, you made my year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!