The Power of Social Media, Small Business, Parental Love and Friends

Recently, I had an amazing experience I’d like to share with you all.  It just goes to show how we can touch total strangers in wonderful ways.

Back in March, when we had to close Childish Things due to the outbreak of Covid-19, I had to become very creative in finding ways to sell things.  I started posting more items on our Facebook page, stepped completely out of my comfort range by “starring in” live videos, ramped up an online website and got over 5000 items on there. I did virtual shopping tours for quite a few people and sent hundreds of pictures via email and texts to customers.  Never did I dream I would be contacted by someone in an effort to fulfill such a special dream.

Way back in March, on one of my first few Facebook posts, I listed a whole bunch of pictures of boys shirts.  I sold about a dozen of these shirts and then put the rest back on the rack or packed them away for the next season. 

Months passed and March turned into July.  I received a message on our FB page from a woman named Cassandra, from Oklahoma. Cassandra wrote asking if we had a particular shirt that was one from back in that March post.  She indicated that she REALLY wanted this shirt.  So, I looked for it, and I still had it! (It’s not like we’ve been selling things as quickly as usual these last 4 months 😉).  I told Cassandra that I had the shirt and could ship it out to her the next day and then Cassandra told me why she so dearly wanted this shirt.

Cassandra’s son, Andy, age 9, wore the same style shirt that was found on my FB page about 6 years ago, to a music festival. Cassandra kept that shirt all these years because she liked it so much and the picture of Andy in the shirt is super cute!!  This past March, right around the time that I posted the shirt on FB, Cassandra finally donated Andy’s shirt when cleaning out closets. 

It is with a heavy heart that I share that Andy tragically died in June.  Cassandra had been searching for the shirt her son wore in that special picture because she wants to make a memory quilt out of some of his clothes. 

Cassandra wrote on her FB page that she was looking for this particular shirt.  Friends shared the post, strangers started searching the internet and shared the post wider and wider.  Someone, somewhere, found a post on my page with the shirt!!  Cassandra told me  “I honestly don’t remember how I found you... keyword searching and then going through posts on Facebook... I’ve had thousands of moms helping me look online... I reached out to groups, my friends shared my post... their friends shared... my post was shared 130 times, last time I checked-... those women shared with over 15,000 people yesterday and brought me some solid leads.”

I saw a picture Cassandra posted on her FB page of the shirt from Childish Things, along with one other that was found by all these mom’s, just trying to help out a fellow mom—someone they don’t know, and whose grief they can only imagine.  Cassandra has graciously given me permission to use these pictures of her precious son, and the shirts that brought together total strangers. The power of sharing is immense, and the power of perseverance even greater.  I am so honored that I was able to send to Cassandra a shirt that to me was a simple shirt, but to her, something so much more! We now follow one another and I keep her in my heart as I know she is stitching together a quilt stitched together with the strongest love there is.

 If you would like to leave a comment or note for Cassandra, I know she would appreciate reading them ❤️