According to Paske, Rudolph and several other FSU football players visited her son’s school on Tuesday, and on that day she said she didn’t have to worry about her child eating alone.
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Rudolph saw the post and said it almost brought him to tears.
Even though it was just one of those exceptional days, Leah Paske was utterly moved, she concludes the post saying, “this is one day I didn’t have to worry if my sweet boy ate lunch alone”.
“Travis Rudolph thank you so much, you made this mumma exceedingly happy, and have made us fans for life”.
Paske’s mother was so touched by the act of compassion that she shared the experience on her Facebook page. “It’s more heartbreaking to me than it seems to be to him”, Paske said. It’s one of my daily questions for him. But they ended up having a great conversation.
Sometimes, local college sports teams will go visit a local elementary or middle school. “And I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ And just like that we were eating lunch together, and he even signed my lunch box”. Travis Rudolph noticed this, grabbed a slice of pizza, and joined him during lunch. She immediately posted a message on Facebook expressing her gratitude to the player.
The young boy with autism doesn’t seem to notice or care, but that doesn’t stop his hopeful mother from asking him after school if things were different today, if he finally found someone to sit with.
Here’s to hoping several of the boy’s classmates follow Rudolph’s lead and eat lunch with him everyday moving forward.
“It was kind of like me sitting on a rainbow”, he said. The photo made it all the way back to Rudolph, who admitted to choking up when he read Paski’s open letter. “He was a really warm person”, Rudolph said. “He started off, telling me how much he loves Florida State and we went from there”. He had a nice smile on his face.
During an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Rudolph said that players made a huge impact on his life by talking to him when he was that age, and he would like to be able to impact people in the same way.
Most days, Paski says, Bo sits by himself in the cafeteria. “‘Was there a time today you felt sad?”
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That is until you hear the story of what receiver Travis Rudolph quietly did for an autistic boy at Monford Middle School in Tallahassee. It’s your choice and I’m very proud.
