I was shopping at Best Buy with my 23 year old son Matthew, who has autism. He loves the Beatles and wanted to buy a Revolver CD.

Just as we entered the store, Matthew  saw an entire rack of Beatle CD’s and ran over to it gleefully, bumping into another customer-hard.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” said Matthew earnestly.

“What are you, a retard or something? “yelled the customer his fists clenched.

“I'm not sure,” Matthew replied passively. "Probably not."

As we drove away with Matthew’s CD’s, I convinced myself that Matthew didn’t know the guy had insulted him. I told friends and family the story, and they laughed.

“Thank God he didn’t get it,” we all said.

But when I put my head on my pillow later that night, I knew that on some level Matthew did get it. God only knows how many times he has heard that phrase.

I thought back to the time when I was a teenager, and I laughed at a weird boy at summer camp who was rocking and flapping his hands. His brother, who was also at the camp, saw me laughing and glared at me, deeply hurt. I will never forget it.. I still wish I could find him some day and tell him that I am so, so sorry.

I’m guessing that the guy at Best Buy realized later that Matthew was standing next to his mother when he blurted out that hurtful phrase.

He is forgiven.

www.laurashumaker.com