Now the Halloween spirit comes to Gabriel, and he and others around the neighborhood can enjoy the spooky day.
One family had to get creative for their son to experience Halloween, and now the entire community gets to celebrate with them.
The Koolings, from Virginia, created a spooktacular event in their yard for their son, Gabriel Gonzalez, who has an autism spectrum disorder.
"We were trying to prep him months prior to leading up to Halloween saying okay you know this year your not going to be able to go, and he just felt bad and sad, angry, depressed," Stephanie Kooling revealed.
They tried to come up with compromises, but their idea just kept getting bigger and bigger.
"I said, you know, you can help me pass out candy, but I'll make it scary for trick-or-treaters," Kooling added. "So that's how it got started in, and it was just a basic maze without any tunnels or anything like that."
Now the Halloween spirit comes to Gabriel, who says he is looking forward to the holiday this year.
"I really have a lot of stress on my hands, and I feel like Sunday will be a good way to let it out," he said. "Don't focus on anything. Just have fun."
It's a tradition the Koolings say they'll keep even if Gabriel one day feels he's too old for Halloween.
