We took a trip last Nov with my friend and her family...she has 2 sons with special needs...the oldest, was 15 at the time (past the cute stage) has autism...he had a lot of trouble getting on rides (too dark, too noisy, too scary, whatever)...but he REALLY wanted to do Journey to Imagination...but as many children with autism do, at the last minute he balked and would not get in the car....I stayed with him while his mom, and the rest of the 2 families went on since we were holding up the line. A very kind older hispanic woman CM that was loading the ride ushered us off to the side so he could calm down....he wanted to ride SO badly, but just couldn't make himself get on. As I talked to him the CM came back over and brought him her flash light and told him he could turn it on anytime he wanted if it got too dark, then she offered to ride with us so she could tell him when the noises were going to come.
He agreed and she rode with us, he held onto the flashlight for dear life, she kept up a calm running commentary about what was coming next...he was so happy and proud of himself...then she let us stay in the car and ride again when she got out and went back to work.
After we got off we went to thank her and return the flashlight and she insisted he keep it for "all the other rides"....to this day whenever he talks about the trip to WDW the 2 things he loves to talk about are the monorail and when we rode the ride with the nice flaslight lady....the flashlight is at his bedside to this day!!
It was a magical moment that would not have been possible without that kind woman...It would have been so easy to dismiss us as "wierd" or "crazy" but what she did made a great and happy memory out of what could have been a very unhappy moment.I have always regretted that I never found out her name.