When your mailbox becomes the highlight of your day, imagine how magical it must feel to find it overflowing with love.
That’s exactly what happened when Deena Babb Smith, a Georgia grandmother, made a heartfelt request on her neighborhood’s social platform, Nextdoor, ahead of her grandson Reb’s 13th birthday. Her mission? To make sure his entry into the teen years was unforgettable.
Reb, who has autism and lives in Colorado, was visiting Smith for two weeks in the summer, a tradition they both cherish. But this year’s visit came with a milestone: his birthday.
“Reb loves to get my mail out of our mailbox, he is excited even if the mail is not for him!” Smith wrote in her post. “Gifts/toys never really interest him. The mail is his biggest JOY!”
With just a simple ask, “Would you send him a birthday card?”, Smith’s community stepped up in the most beautiful way.
Once Reb arrived, the cards started pouring in. Not just from her immediate neighbors, but from towns as far as Savannah, Georgia, and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. In total? Over 160 birthday cards, many personalized, many with gift cards, stickers, even shark teeth!
“I knew several of the people that sent cards. I knew of several people, although I didn’t know them,” Smith shared. “There were a lot of cards from people I did not know or did not even sign their names to the cards, and they would write ‘from your neighbor’ and ‘from your friend.’”
And Reb? He checked the mailbox several times a day. “He would see his name and start hollering, ‘It says to Reb! It is for me!’” Smith said, adding, “The woman delivering our mail was excited, and so were we.”
Smith got the idea from a friend down the street who had done something similar for her own child. “Her son received about 19 birthday cards,” she recalled. “I have never requested or posted anything like this before.”
But this “first-time post” turned into something much more.
“This whole deal has been amazing for our Reb. It has been so much fun for us to watch him be that excited!” Smith said. “He checked the mailbox several times a day, a habit he had always maintained, even when it wasn’t his birthday.”
Even after Reb returned home to Colorado, the kindness kept coming. Smith carefully organized all his birthday cards into two big notebooks. All the stickers, shark teeth, and trinkets? Tucked neatly into pencil pouches. And the gift money? Reb’s mom is helping him open a savings account, something he’s “so excited about.”
Some birthday wishes come with cake and candles. But for one very loved 13-year-old, they came with stamps and a whole lot of heart.
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