After Only One Child RSVP'd For 8-Year-Old’s First Birthday Since Mom’s Death, A Community Stepped In To Help
A heartwarming story.
TikTok After a woman made a heartbreaking video explaining her devastation for her little sister after she sent out invites to her first birthday without their mom, their local community stepped in to help.
In the original video posted on July 4, Chloe Sexton emotionally tells her followers "PSA for anybody who has a kid that they're raising. If a kid in your child's class gives out birthday invitations just come."
She explains that her sister is about to celebrate her 8th birthday, her first since their mom passed away from brain cancer almost three months ago,
The TikToker says only one person RSVP'd for her sister's birthday party.
"It's like an hour or two of your life, please just come," she adds.
"I haven't even told her," Sexton says through tears. "[Because] why? Her whole class knew what happened."
In the video, Sexton is putting together decorations for the party, saying that she is trying to find kids to fill up her sister's party.
"Right now all I have is really, really young [kids]," she continues. "And setting up a blow-up slide, and making sure she has a two-stack cake and their activities. And I'm gonna try and make a balloon arch by myself."
At one point in the video, Sexton completely breaks down, saying that "it should be our mom" who is helping put together Charlotte's birthday party.
"My mom should be doing this, but my moms' not here," she says. "It would just suck less if kids in her class had even wanted to come."
The video, which garnered over nine million views and two million likes, caught the attention of people in their local community who came together to make sure Charlotte had an amazing birthday without her mom.
Charlotte ended up having the birthday party of a lifetime.
In a follow-up video, Sexton showed the outcome of her sister's birthday, which was also the first birthday party she'd ever had.
"Less than a week ago I told the internet that my little sister had one child RSVP to her first birthday since our mom died of brain cancer 86 days ago," Sexton says. "I can't wait to tell you what happened."
She explained how their story went viral and completely changed their lives. Two women, Taylor and Abby, came over to their home and decorated the entire thing, while another woman, Cindy, inflated and installed balloon decorations.
The video showed the reaction of Sexton's sister, Charlotte, who couldn't stop grinning as she looked at the decorations and activities for her birthday party, along with the dozens of kids that ended up showing up.
Sexton details a pony, Miss Gracie, that showed up as Charlotte's first surprise, and all of the kids were able to pet and ride her.
"A group called Mid South Jeeps orchestrated a drive-by of more than 30 Jeeps. Each one of them stopping and singing happy birthday, handing [Charlotte] gifts," Sexton says, while the video of the Jeeps driving by plays on the screen. "[Charlotte] even got a personalized Jeep with her name on it."
"This was so much more than a birthday or a party," Sexton concluded. "You gave [us] a moment [we] will never forget and I have never felt less alone."
Currently, Sexton has a GoFundMe campaign where she is collecting money so that she and Charlotte can travel to Hawai'i and spread their mother's ashes.
"My mother left us with beautiful memories of her time in Hawai’i and always wanted to be scattered in the ocean," the campaign reads.
"When her ashes are returned to me and my sister, with your help we will head to Hawai’i to say our goodbyes."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.