30-Year-Old Man With Special Needs And Nowhere To Go Gets Taken In By His Former Teacher, Given His First Birthday Party

Teachers are rightly considered heroes for the tireless, often thankless work that they do but sometimes they go above and beyond and achieve superhero status. Such was the case in this story from Texas.

Chris Barrington, a 30-year-old man from Waco has special needs and functions at the level of a six-year-old, according to CBS.

This means that Barrington cannot live alone and when his father came down with leukemia and could no longer care for him two months ago he was left wandering the streets of Waco, Texas. When police questioned him he luckily remembered something: The name of his junior high teacher, Michell Girard, whom he hadn’t seen in 10 years. According to CBS:

“When Barrington’s dad couldn’t care for him anymore, he went out alone and wandered for two whole days. When the sheriff’s department picked him, up, Barrington remembered only one name: Mrs. Girard.”

Now that teacher has gone above and beyond, taking Barrington in to her home and even organizing a birthday party for Chris, the first he’s ever had.

“He deserves a good life. He’s had a hard life,” Girard told KWTX.

Despite not having seen Chris in years Girard felt she had to step in to help him, telling KWTX:

“I said: ‘What happens if I don’t take him in? Would he get into a group home?’ And they said ‘No he’ll go into an institution’ and I said ‘Not on my watch he’s not.”

Girard is applying for permanent guardianship of Barrington and says she wants to give him the life he never had, telling CBS:

“He’s never had a birthday present, a birthday party. He’s never had Christmas, Thanksgiving…nothing. So this year is going to be full of firsts.”

What a story. What a teacher.

h/t: KWTX

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