Every person needs a Rachel in their lives. That was what a school teacher in Co Meath thought after reading a wish by her student (9). By last Wednesday, everyone did have Rachel in their lives. A simple wish, sibling love and a tale of autism through the eyes of a young sister: we were hooked.
Social media platforms were used widely to share the warm, fuzzy feeling we all got from Rachel – a nine-year -old who had put things in perspective even for a short while.
Rachel Cahill touched hearts on World Autism Awareness Day through her wish for her brother Matthew (4) to be "healed" of autism.
In an essay titled "I wish, I wish, I wish", the St Paul's NS, Navan, student, wrote: "When you have autism, your brain is different. Matthew would hear things more loudly than us, he feels more differently and sees things we don't . So ever since Matthew was diagnosed with autism, my wish was for Matthew's autism to be healed."
Her words stopped the hamster’s wheel and made a lot of our worries irrelevant.
The condition is secondary to her love. Rachel’s emotive tale moved her teacher Kathryn Lenaghan to pen a letter saying: “Keep doing what you’re doing, Rachel, and you will touch the lives of many people. ” By Wednesday, people across Ireland agreed.