Birthday wishes came true for Andrew Jollimore from Lower Sackville, N.S., on Tuesday. His mother Denise took to social media to share her son’s birthday was coming up. “I had this crazy idea to get him extra birthday cards because he loves going to the mail and he loves getting birthday cards on his birthday, he tells me for the past two months how many days it is to his birthday and he just wants to feel included and special so I wanted to make him feel special,” says Denise. She recorded a video explaining her son has autism and epilepsy and he wants to get birthday cards in the mail for his 36th birthday. “I am not asking for money or anything like that but here is what he does like WWE, the Trailer Park Boys, and it just went from there,” says Denise. She never imagined the outpouring of responses. So far, they have received over 500 cards and packages, including comic books, toys, T-shirts and gift cards. “I have no idea how much I opened, I lost count,” says Andrew. “Some people I do know and some people I don’t. It means a lot to me to get all these birthday cards from around the world.” Denise says the birthday parcels have come from places including Australia, the U.K., and many U.S. states. She’d tagged well-known N.S. content creator Alicia Mccarvell in her post. Mccarvell also shared a video to her 1.6 million Instagram followers, which went viral. “The world is heavy, it just felt like something easy to not only bring Andrew joy, but the coolest part has been watching how much joy this has brought everybody who’s sending him things as well,” says Mccarvell. She says she has received thousands of direct messages online from people all around the world and she has been posting updates for Andrew’s birthday. “I think that has also been really cool, like, Americans learning how to address mail for the first time to Canada to send him something. Just the joy in general but also people following up to see his reaction and know that their card made a difference,” Mccarvell adds. Denise says she’s grateful for Mccarvell’s post, as the viral video brought in hundreds of cards and gifts. “Within two days I had Amazon packages showing up at my door and then the following week, mail cards and everything started coming,” she says. Andrew even got a card and gift from an actor in one of his favourite shows, “Trailer Park Boys.” “I got a picture of Randy himself,” says Andrew. The mail hasn’t stopped, people are still dropping off deliveries. Billijane Gallant dropped off a gift on Tuesday. “We brought a balloon garland for Andrew’s 36th birthday. We actually saw online that he was celebrating today, so we thought we would drop off some balloons,” she says. Denise says she is moved by the generosity from strangers. She is so happy to see a smile on her son’s face. “It warms my heart that there is still good in the world and there is kindness out there and people being nice and not getting anything in return. I just wanted him to feel special,” says Denise. Andrew has been opening cards and gifts all day, he says he doesn’t know what to do with it all but is so happy. “Thank you to all the people who sent me all these birthday cards from around the world, thank you all, you have my thanks,” says Andrew. For anyone still looking to mail him cards or drop off gifts, his family welcomes it and is grateful to all of those who helped make his day so memorable. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
