{"id":7219,"date":"2022-07-20T12:24:23","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T16:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=7219"},"modified":"2022-07-20T12:24:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T16:24:23","slug":"strangers-unite-to-help-grieving-8-year-old-celebrate-first-birthday-after-losing-mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/07\/strangers-unite-to-help-grieving-8-year-old-celebrate-first-birthday-after-losing-mom.html","title":{"rendered":"Strangers Unite to Help Grieving 8-Year-Old Celebrate First Birthday After Losing Mom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Chloe Sexton\/@cholebluffcakes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eight-year-old Charlotte Sexton had never had a birthday party. Her mother, Jennifer, had been battling brain cancer for the last 11 years, and the illness had kept her from being able to make a big event of the occasion. \u201cMy mom was generally pretty sick and tired and had done radiation and chemo five and six times each. There just wasn\u2019t a lot of room for her to party plan,\u201d Charlotte\u2019s sister, Chloe, told Today<\/a>. Sadly, Jennifer lost her battle with cancer on April 12th<\/sup> of this year, leaving Charlotte in the care of 28-year-old Chloe. After what she had gone through, Chloe decided Charlotte needed a birthday party to celebrate her and sent out invitations. Charlotte had changed schools in the middle of the school year due to her mother\u2019s death, and despite teachers and classmates knowing of her situation, the response to the invitations was underwhelming. \u201cI sent the invites out early, and I heard nothing back except from one person. It upset me that I couldn\u2019t give her the birthday I wanted to,\u201d Chloe told CNN<\/a> in an interview.<\/p>\n

Chloe took to Tik Tok<\/a> to lament their situation, having already established a large number of followers from her cookie baking business, Bluff Cakes<\/a>. \u201cI was just sad. My Tik Tok has always been a place where I keep things very transparent. It\u2019s a new age of social media to give your brand and your brand\u2019s journey a personality and let people get this very transparent view of your struggles. They want to see what it\u2019s taken to get to where you are and there\u2019s no way to do that unless I show them what I\u2019m up against to make this company go around.\u201d As of Monday, the video has been viewed over 2 million times and has over thirty thousand comments. \u201cIf a kid in your child\u2019s class gives out birthday invitations, just come. My mom should be doing this. My mom is not here,\u201d Chloe said in the video.<\/p>\n

People who had seen the video reached out to Chloe, offering to help her give Charlotte the best birthday ever. On July 9, people came from all over to their Memphis home to help decorate, bring gifts, and one woman even brought her horse all the way from Mississippi to offer rides. A drive-by parade was also organized by a local group, and nearly 30 cars came by the house, with some people offering gifts out their window to the birthday girl. There was even a visit from reptiles with the kids at the party learning about snakes and lizards. Charlotte was floored. \u201cShe kept asking me \u2018Is this all for me?\u2019\u201d Chloe recalled. \u00a0The experience has helped her view on humanity. \u201cIt saved something in me that I was giving up on which is that nobody really sees you on social media. They think they see you, they like your video, but do they ever really see you and care or is it just pretty sentiments\u2026 It\u2019s that extra bit of love, where they didn\u2019t have to, but they did because they could. Everyone needs a bit more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Eight-year-old Charlotte Sexton had never had a birthday party. Her mother, Jennifer, had been battling brain cancer for the last 11 years, and the illness had kept her from being able to make a big event of the occasion. \u201cMy mom was generally pretty sick and tired and had done radiation and chemo five…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":7228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"\nStrangers Unite to Help Grieving 8-Year-Old Celebrate First Birthday After Losing Mom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An 8-year-old girl who just lost her mom to cancer was surprised with a magical birthday party after initially receiving only one RSVP to the celebration.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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