STONEHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - A Weston girl got the surprise of a lifetime.
Nine-year-old Avery Nigrelli has had a stutter for years but, her mom says that after she talked with President Joe Biden, she is standing taller than she ever has before.
“It was amazing,” Avery said. “I wasn’t going to ever expect that it was going to happen.”
She and her family were on Nantucket over the weekend when they encountered the president. What happened next now has more than 2 million views on social media.
“I wanted to meet him because I have a stutter just like him,” she said. “He pulled me aside and he was telling me what he does when he stutters… If the words ever got stuck in his cheek, he took a deep breath and tried again.”
Biden has been open about his struggles with his stutter and previously said he would practice speaking in the mirror for hours. He even recited poetry to help overcome it.
“He zoned right in on her and said, ‘This will not define you. You can be anything you want to be. Look at me, I’m the President of the United States. I’ve had a stutter all my life,” Avery’s mom Jessica recalled.
Before he left, the president extended a special invitation to visit the White House.
“Like every time I stutter, I will feel proud, because the president told me that if I just stick with the stutter, it will just let you be,” Avery said.
“She’s standing taller today than she ever has,” her mom said. “It’s always felt something that’s a little bit hard and embarrassing, and she went to bed last night feeling like it’s something that made her special.”
The family says Biden has been in touch since and they are hoping to set up an hour-long lunch in the nation’s capital in the near future.
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