Birthdays for children should be filled with joy and excitement. Imagine, however, that none of your child’s or grandchild’s classmates attended their birthday party…
Seeing your child sad and alone on their special day would be heartbreaking. However, this is precisely how Amelia Lara felt when her grandson, Gerald, was forced to celebrate alone, despite inviting 30 classmates.
Amelia did something that her grandson will never forget in response to the heartbreaking event. And the Internet’s response demonstrates that there are still a great number of kind and generous people in the world.
Amelia Lara’s heart broke when she saw her grandson dressed up and waiting to cut the cake at his ninth birthday party. As the clock ticked, none of the thirty invited guests had arrived, and there were no signs of anyone arriving.
Amelia accepted the devastating reality two hours after her grandson’s party was scheduled to begin and resolved to do something so the boy would not be permanently traumatized.
Amelia sat down at her computer and posted the following Facebook message:
“I’m going to vent right now. My grandson who is in second grade and has had at least 5 skull expansion surgeries, is slower than the other kids in his class. However, he is the kindest, most compassionate kid I know. His mother sent 30 invitations to his class. 12 said they were coming.
At, 3 o’clock he made sure his goodie bags were ready for his friends, he was dressed and ready to party.
At 5:00 p.m. he was still sitting there not wanting to cut his cake because one person might show up. When my daughter called the 12 parents to find out what was going on. Here is their response: ‘My child can’t play with yours he is just to different.’
How sad he is nine he just wants to have friends. So no one came, no cards, no presents. So, it is my mission to have as many cards as I can mailed to my little guy. You can send them to me and I’ll make sure he gets them… this breaks my heart.”
Amelia Lara then provided her address so that people could send birthday greetings to Gerald.
Thousands of people from all over the world responded to Amelia’s request by sending her grandson cards and gifts. Gerald was, without a doubt, ecstatic.