Father shares autistic son's heartbreaking response to homework

One goal parents have is to make sure their children are happy; when they aren't, it's devastating. One dad shared the sadness he has about his son, Christopher.

Christopher is on the autism spectrum, and has been having a hard time making friends at school. For a homework assignment, he had to answer several questions about himself. One answer, about Christopher's friends, is only two words -- but it's heartbreaking:

Christopher's father, Bob Cornelius, posted the photo to Facebook. He visited his school for back-to-school night and noticed the assignment on Christopher's classroom wall. At first, Cornelius only saw happier answers to questions like favorite foods and sport.

After Cornelius snapped a photo, however, he saw the question about names of Christopher's friends. Christopher curtly replied, "no one."

In his post, Cornelius brought up the story of a football player sitting with an autistic boy because he was alone. From then on, others sat with the boy as well. Cornelius asked, however, why no one sat with him before he was "thrust in the spotlight." Cornelius said it was because these children have not been taught to accept others who are different.

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He then recalled a time where Christopher asked to have a sleepover, because his older brother has them all the time. When Cornelius asked with whom, he did not have an answer. "Because he didn't have a friend," he explained. "He's never had a friend. Ever. He just turned eleven."

Until seeing the assignment, Cornelius did not know that Christopher knew he was isolated from other children. Seeing that he is very much aware broke his heart.

Cornelius did not ask for much in his post, just that people are more empathetic towards people like Christopher. The post resonated with so many that it gained thousands of shares -- and people actually messaged Cornelius to talk and send gifts to Christopher.

Hopefully in the near future, Christopher will have a different answer to that question.