After Finding Out Why A Mom Celebrated Her Birthday All Alone, A Stranger Stepped In To Make Sure She Felt Appreciated
Kindness goes a long way.
Neenib Youkana | TikTok, Salamandra86, Visakaruban Shanmugan's Images, Olga Niekrasova | Canva All over the internet, we see people doing kind things for others. Whether it’s YouTubers donating money to the homeless or TikTokers giving nice speeches for someone who’s down, we see these acts of kindness all over the world.
This specific act of kindness made a mom's day one she will never forget.
Strangers celebrated a mom’s birthday after she revealed that she had spent it alone.
A popular TikToker Neenib Youkana posted a video to his account that struck the heartstrings of thousands of people. In Youkana's video, he was seen in a store asking strangers if they had celebrated their birthdays. One woman they approached admitted that she "was kind of like by myself" for her birthday, and began explaining her story which caused an emotional rollercoaster for many.
She said, “My son died last year, my mom died and I’m here kind of by myself,” she said, prompting Youkana and a friend to hand her a red birthday hat and begin singing 'Happy Birthday' to her.
The woman named Debra thanked them and was then handed a gift from Youkana. When opening the box, Debra said, “If my son could fit in here, I would love that.”
Debra told them how her son, her only child, had passed away and explained that he had gotten into a car crash that left him "unrecognizable." She began to tear up as Youkana explained, “He’s in a better place now, he’s with God.”
As Debra opened the box she said, “That’s nice” with a smile on her face upon seeing money. She went in to hug Youkana, and to thank him for the kind gestures.
Youkana recorded Debra crying and told her that it was okay and that they would celebrate her birthday. Youkana ended the video by saying, “I think your son is watching over you today.”
The kind acts of Youkana and his friend show that the little things matter and that you never know what another person is going through.
Many in the comments said, “You can tell that she just needed someone to talk to.” She had just lost her son and her mother, and with no more kids, she most definitely felt alone and just needed someone to listen to her.
One act of kindness truly made a difference in Debra’s day. Acts of kindness like this one show that we can never expect to know what anyone is experiencing and that we should treat everyone with respect and kindness.
Acts like this go a long way. It’s incredibly important to be kind to others, especially because thoughts are invisible and we can’t read the minds of others.
Photo: TikTok
Youkana's act of kindness sparked debate about such acts being posted online.
There are those who believe that people film doing "good deeds" simply to boost their following or to create a reputation as a "kind" influencer. So it does beg the question as to why Youkana decided to post the video, knowing it could go viral.
These feel-good videos often raise concerns of clout chasing since others believe that these influencers could just go out and do good deeds without having to film it.
It was clearly a very kind thing that he did, no one is questioning that. However, videos like this one raise suspicions about how these influencers view their public image, and how if he didn’t plan on posting a video like this, maybe he wouldn’t have done such a nice thing for Debra.
We’ve seen many people blow up for doing kind things like this, and maybe it was just for some clout and a larger following.
We can guess and accuse all day, but in the end, he did a nice thing and hopefully had a good motive behind it. Like we all should do every day.
Cortney Crowell is a writer and frequent contributor to YourTango from New Jersey who covers entertainment, news, and human interest stories.