Mom Heartbroken Son Always Sits Alone at Lunch Until 4 Students Approach Him on 1st Day Back
For years, Kay Kirby has been praying that someone would sit with her teenage son at lunch. On his first day of his junior year of high school, she knew her prayers had been answered when he got in the car and excitedly told her, “Mom. I didn’t sit alone!”
Sixteen-year-old Andrew had gotten accustomed to sitting by himself at lunch, but the sting of being alone never went away. He would choose a seat at the lunch table and hide behind his cell phone until the lunch period was over.
The thought of her son sitting alone broke Kay’s heart, but she continued praying that just one of his classmates would go out of their way to sit with him.
“It’s been a constant over the years. He has sat alone and it’s always bothered me and my husband. I can picture him sitting by himself,” Kay told Fox News. “Over the years, he’s had administration … staff (sit by him), but he’s never had his own peers.
Andrew has overcome many health obstacles in the past few years due to his neurofibromatosis — a condition that causes tumors to form along the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, according to the Mayo Clinic. His was also born with an addiction to crack cocaine before the Kirby’s began fostering him as an infant.
“He’s had a lot of challenges,” Kay said. “He’s bright, but he’s just different.”
While Andrew is shy, Kay says that once you make an effort to get to know him he is far from quiet, which is why she and her husband, Tyler, were praying so diligently for someone to approach him at lunch.
Thankfully, their long-awaited prayers were answered on the first day of his junior year.
Kay texted him when she knew he was at lunch to check in with him, which is something she does normally. He told her that, yes, he was sitting alone, but he soon stopped responded to her texts.
Later, when she picked him up from school he had exciting news! He climbed into the car and said, “Mom, I didn’t eat alone!”
“He couldn’t get into the car quick enough to tell me that he didn’t eat lunch by himself,” Kay said.
Her heart was overjoyed.
A group of Student Council members at Boiling Springs High School were eating lunch together and noticed that Andrew and a few others were eating alone. They decided that they wanted to invite them to eat with them.
Within the group, Andrew even found a peer who also had scoliosis. The group even invited him to eat lunch with them the next day.
“It makes me feel happy that I can eat with people,” Andrew said.
“We’ve been praying for this for a long time, that somebody would just see him and notice him and just say, ‘Hey, why don’t you hang with us for a while.'” Tyler said.
Kay was so grateful for the act of kindness that these students showed to her son that she posted a status on her Facebook page.
“This isn’t your typical ‘First Day of School’ post. This is a SHOUT OUT to the Boiling Springs High School Student Council,” she wrote. “These students may not have thought this was a big deal, but it was an answer to prayer and a great encouragement for Andrew. THANK YOU to those students, you made a difference today!”
The post quickly went viral. Spartanburg County School District Two even shared the post on their page to highlight the Student Council members’ kindness.
“We typically do not share posts from personal pages, but this is a very worthwhile exception,” they wrote. “This post shows the loving community we live in, the character of our students and the family-feel of our schools.”
Damian Howarth, one of the students who sat with Andrew the first day, was surprised that he had been sitting alone for that long.
“We should have stepped up before, and more people should have too,” Howard told WHNS. “Don’t be afraid to meet someone new. Just go out and do it.”
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