Touching moment a shy autistic boy who set off for prom alone arrived with FIVE girls
HAVING autism means socialising can be a challenge for Brodie Smith.
But he was so determined to go to his school prom after finishing his GCSEs that he set off alone, walking to the venue in his new three-piece suit.
He soon had all the company a 16-year-old boy could hope for, however, when a group of girls in his year stopped and invited him into their black Range Rover.
Arriving in style, he was cheered by his fellow pupils as he posed for photos with the girls before going into the party.
Brodie’s mother Dianne, 48, said yesterday: ‘I knew nothing about it until a few days later. It touched me – I was in tears. Brodie will never forget that moment.
‘He told me he didn’t know the girls very well but they had just stopped and asked him to get in. You can see from the photograph how pleased Brodie was – he had a massive, massive grin.’
She added: ‘I cried my eyes out when he was leaving for the prom – I felt sorry for him not going with a bunch of friends but he was too shy to ask any of his mates if he could go with them.’
Brodie, who attends St Peter’s Catholic School in Solihull, West Midlands, was walking up the long drive to Hogarths Hotel in the town for the prom last Wednesday when the five girls stopped.
One of them, Lottie Byrne, 16, said: ‘We were all really excited and just saw Brodie walking on his own up the hotel driveway.
‘One of the girls said: “Let’s get him in,” and I was shouting out the window for him to get in the front seat. He was a bit overwhelmed, to be honest.’
The following day Lottie’s mother Nicky, 48, received an email from the girls’ head of year praising them for being a ‘genuinely kind and mature group of individuals’. Mrs Byrne proudly posted an image of the email on Facebook, where it went viral and alerted Brodie’s mother to what had happened.
Miss Smith, a special needs co-ordinator at a children’s nursery, said: ‘Brodie was diagnosed with atypical autism when he was eight. He has always gone to mainstream school but the condition affects his communication and socialisation.
‘He’s never had lots of friends and was always a bit of a target – the other children would tease him. He used to come home from school and cry, saying, “Nobody likes me, everyone picks on me”. It was horrible.’
She added: ‘He eventually settled and has done really well. He sat 15 GCSEs and is predicted to do well and is hoping to do A-levels and go to university. What happened at the prom was the icing on the cake.’
She described Brodie’s autism as a ‘hidden disability’, where ‘people would look at him but find it difficult to comprehend the struggles he was having’.