This holiday season, we've seen many shopping mall Santas perform generous and compassionate acts of kindness. They may not be the real Santa, but they're surely doing his work! Check out this mall Santa comforting a girl with cancer with some kind words, and this one using sign language to communicate with a little girl.
Like many special-needs children, 2-year-old Ryland Wade can't participate in some activities that children who do not have special needs can. He's nonverbal, he suffers from epilepsy and spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, and he has seizures several times a day.
But his mom, Samantha, wanted her son to experience sitting on Santa's lap just like all the other kids. She was going to take him to the Belden Village Mall in Canton, Ohio, for a special Christmas event for special-needs children, but Ryland suffered a seizure just before leaving.
This didn't stop the determined mom, and even if her son was exhausted by the episode, he met Santa at the mall — but Samantha never expected to capture such a heartwarming moment on camera.
She tells WJW, ""When I set Ryland on his lap, he wouldn't open his eyes for anything. But Santa immediately cuddled with him, and very quietly talked to him for a while. When it came time for a photo, he pretended like he was snoozing along with Ryland, making for one awesome picture, and a very memorable moment for us."
She adds that this special Santa was very "intuitive" to Ryland's needs.
If you were touched by this precious moment between Ryland and Santa, please SHARE!
