My daughter has a very rare genetic disorder. It causes physical and intellectual disabilities. She doesn’t really have friends so birthday parties are not a thing. We have found other ways to make her birthday special, like going to a baseball game and handing out cupcake to people sitting near us.

My daughter has a very rare genetic disorder. It causes physical and intellectual disabilities. She doesn’t really have friends so birthday parties are not a thing. We have found other ways to make her birthday special, like going to a baseball game and handing out cupcake to people sitting near us.

We spend a decent amount of time at a major theme park because she enjoys the excitement, character interactions and shows. The people who work there have come to know her and she calls them her best friends. If she tells us she wants to visit her friends, she means going to this theme park.

Durning a visit to the park near her 16th birthday, she mentioned to the workers that her birthday was near and that all she wanted was to spend the day with “her friends”.

A few days later I was contacted by one of them on Facebook and asked if that was true, that she wasn’t having a 16th birthday party. I said yes and explained why, but that it was all good and we intended to come to the parks and celebrate.

A couple days before her birthday, I was contacted again and asked to bring her by a place where one of the performers worked a second job so they could tell her happy birthday on her actual birthday.

Those theme park workers got together, rented out a venue, and threw her a huge, amazing, and totally on her level 16th birthday party. Because a lot of them were “friends with” characters, I didn’t even recognise half of them! They sang, put on a show, had cake and ice cream, balloons, the whole thing!

She spent the whole time smiling and laughing. I spent the whole time crying. I will forever be grateful to these people who have such kind, generous hearts.

There are very good people in this world.