Do Gio a favor and keep reading this amazing story. He is looking for someone. It may be you.

Did you happen to be riding BART the Sunday before Memorial Day? Did you have a bike? Did you strike up a conversation with a single mom and her singular son? Believe me, you wouldn’t forget Gio Garrett.

Gio is 11. He has had quite a medical journey for a young lad. He was born six days overdue and initially was “a healthy very, very happy boy,” said his mom, Dianne Linares. “Then came the day he turned blue. I mean Smurf blue.” At 2 years old, Gio had surgery to remove a cyst that was blocking 75 percent of his airway.

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Peterson: Rider flung from slide, dampening Dublin’s The Wave debut At 4 he had surgery to relieve swelling on his brain. He was in a coma for about a week. When he awoke, he was blind. But he could hear, and he loved listening to the BART trains roll by outside his hospital room.

The noise soothed him. The transit system intrigued him. He has dressed up as a BART car for Halloween, OK? He and his mom ride BART every chance they get. Recently they found themselves in a BART car next to a gentleman — you — with a bike. Gio, as he is wont to do, struck up a conversation. He told you, “We were on BART all morning!” You were impressed.

When he and his mom exited the train at the Lafayette station, you slipped Gio a card just before the doors closed and you continued on down the tracks.

Turns out it was a BART card loaded with enough money, his mom says, to allow Gio to ride BART for the rest of the year. But you knew that when you gave it to him, right?

Maybe you don’t know this. Gio is looking for Mr. Good Guy. He is very interested in thanking you for your kind gesture.

A few other things you might want to know about Gio. He has Williams Syndrome, a developmental disorder. It’s a big diagnosis for a guy just starting out in life, but Gio wears it well. It can be characterized by an outgoing, engaging personality and a tendency to take an extreme interest in other people. That’s Gio, the boy who spent 30 minutes a week teaching Braille to his fifth grade classmates this past school year.

His mom says he has the “happy gene.”

Nothing gets him down, though he recently wrote a wistful note wishing “I could see words on a page because I like books and I want to be a reader.” He likes riding horses (Amigo is his favorite). He’s been to 27 states. He has visited the Grand Canyon where, his mother said, “he would throw rocks and listen for the sound to see how far they would go.” We all should have these kinds of grand adventures.



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Gio has an iPod filled with music and, yes, the sound of BART trains. Sometimes Gio and his mom just sit in a station as BART trains come and go. Gio likes the Fruitvale station because, he says, “it has the most buses.” He likes listening to buses too. And to airplanes taking off.

“I just let him do his own thing,” his mom said, “let him be Gio.”

And about Gio and his mom. They’re a heart-warming sight together, sharing a bond forged by some of the biggest challenges life can offer.

“He was very depressed,” Linares said, recalling Gio’s demeanor after his second surgery. “He didn’t talk or eat. I don’t think he understood what was happening to him. He would ask everyone to be quiet. He just liked listening to the train.

“I feel like I was blessed with this kid. I’m only human, I’ve had my moments. I’ve seen it all. I’m just so glad to have him.”

Can you feel the lump in your throat yet?

“I want people to understand that these things go a long way,” Linares said of the mystery man’s kind gesture. “And with all of the events that have been happening on BART recently, it’s comforting to know there are Good Samaritans riding among us on the train.”

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