Over the course of a week, Sherry Lynn Hillard had six police officers go over to her home due to her teen's meltdowns [1] that "turned to rage." Sherry says her son, John, who has autism, wants to dress like Joe from Blue's Clues, but she was unable to find the shirt he wears anywhere. In a post to Facebook, she shared how the officers' unexpected empathy helped curb her frustrations and open her eyes to what some people are willing to do for complete strangers.
"With so much negativity shown towards law enforcement lately, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to show my appreciation for the empathy these officers had for my son," Sherry wrote. "They showed up not knowing much about autism but they listened and learned while they kept us all safe. They also asked A LOT of questions so they wouldn't do the wrong thing."
The mom continues, explaining that once the officers understood what John's meltdown was about, they went out to buy a blue shirt and some fabric markers. She snapped a photo of three officers huddled around the hood of a squad car as they attempted to DIY [2] the exact shirt the character wears on the show for John. "Sadly, it didn't work," she wrote. "But the fact that they were willing to do this for my son made them heroes in my eyes."
However, since posting the photo, Sherry's story has gone completely viral, which led to Texas-based embroidery and screen-printing company Cutting Edge Designs [4] seeing the post and creating a shirt for John [5]. "A HUGE THANK YOU TO CUTTING EDGE DESIGNS!" Sherry wrote in a second post that shared a photo of John in his new tee. "He's finally got his shirt!!!"