Story Behind The Picture

When we went to Disney last month one of the restaurants we ate at was the Biergarten Restaurant at Epcott.

They have "communal, biergarten-style tables" and you're asked if you mind being seated with another party. We didn't mind and we were joined by another family of four who had two boys about the same age as my kids. And, coincidentally, the husband has a brother who has Down syndrome. Neat little connection that we were seated with that family!

This restaurant also has a live band and a dance floor. We were seated right next to the railing that circled the dance floor. The first opportunity there was to dance I told Kayla she could go out on the floor to dance; she was more than happy to be able to do so.

I tried to get a picture of her and managed to get this photo as the lady in the background went down. She went down hard; hit her head hard.

Kayla came back to the table and she was very concerned about the lady; kept glancing over to see if she was up yet, kept saying she didn't want her to go to the hospital ("no hospital, no blood!"), she was worried for her.


She was down for quite a while with different people checking her out (security and medical). She was down for so long that when she finally got up people clapped for her as they do when an athlete is injured. I was surprised she wasn't being escorted out on a stretcher or wheelchair since she was down for so long.

We continued on with our meal and eventually the band started up another round of songs. Kayla took off for the dance floor but was back sooner than I expected. She told me she 'gave a girl a hug.' I usually play 20 questions with Kayla to try and get the whole picture of what she's trying to tell me.

"You gave someone a hug?"
K: "Yeah, the girl."

I turned to look at the dance floor to see what kids were there, but there weren't any. I tried asking her again about who she hugged and she finally gave me a better description.

"That girl fall, I give her a hug."
M: "You hugged the lady that fell down?"
K: "Yeah!"
M: "The lady that fell down on the floor over there? You just went over there and gave her a hug?"
K: "Yeah, I hug that lady."
M: "Where is she?"

She pointed across the floor to the other side of the railing where there were tables and I scanned the diners sitting over there ... and sure enough ... the lady was sitting at the table. I knew Kayla had been concerned for her but I didn't know she paid that much attention that she would be able to pick her out of a crowd.

I told Kayla how nice that was of her to give that lady a hug. A few minutes later Kayla and I walked to the buffet to get dessert and on our way back she wanted to bring me over to their table and show me the lady that she hugged so I could see that she was ok. I still wasn't 100% sure if Kayla did what she said she did.

An example of why I don't always believe her: yesterday I asked if she went to the library at school (yes). So you returned your 2 books? (yes). Both of your books - Bobby's Zoo and Snow Day - you returned to the library? (yes) And you got new books? (yes). When I opened her backpack Bobby's Zoo and Snow Day were still there.

So I asked this lady if Kayla did in fact come by her table and give her a hug and she confirmed that she did and she was really touched by it.

Lesson from my daughter: Sometimes it's ok to hug a stranger, because sometimes they really need a hug. 

My kids closed out the night with some more dancing:

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