LADSON, SC (WCSC) - A Coastal Carolina Fair employee's kind gesture to a mentally disabled boy and his family has garnered the adoration of more than half a million people on Facebook. Kathy Brown's Facebook post, which details her family's encounter with fair employee Lovell Thompson, has received 583,518 likes, 49,931 shares and more than 22,579 comments as of 5:37 p.m. on Tuesday. Brown said she took her son to the fair this past weekend and was waiting in line for the Music Express ride when she says Thompson, who was the ride attendant, noticed her son. "He saw my family standing in line, my 8 year old son with special needs dancing beside me while I had his stroller near by, and motioned for me to come over to him," Brown said in a Facebook post to Live 5 News on Monday."I did and he told me to bring 'that boy' to the front of the line. I told him we had a group of 4 riding together, and he said 'Y'all come to the exit.'"

Thompson allowed Brown's family ahead of the line, and when the ride was over, Brown said Thompson continued to show his generosity. "When the ride was over, he told my nephew who was riding with my son, to stay seated until everyone else had exited the ride. He then drove my nephew and son around to the exit area so my son didn't have walk around the entire ride track," Brown said."This one small gesture made our day so much brighter! You see, my son is one of only 800 people in the entire world with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, a rare chromosome deletion. This chromosome deletion causes mental retardation, low muscle tone, autism, sensory issues, etc. Thank you, Sir, for making my son's first time ever riding the "big" rides a success."