A man received 30,000 birthday cards from all over the world after his mother’s request on Facebook went viral.
By the time Manuel Parisseaux’s birthday arrived on Saturday, so many letters and gifts had been delivered to his Calais home that they had to be stored in a neighbour’s garage.
Lucien Parisseaux, Manuel’s father, originally posted the call to action on November 3rd, saying: “My son Manuel is going to turn 30 years old on November 22. He has Down’s Syndrome. I’m writing to ask you to take a couple of minutes to send him a little card to pass and to pass this information on to your friends so the chain doesn’t get broken.”
“I thank you all for your gesture, which will make my Manu so happy,” he added.
When the post went viral in France, Facebook suspended Mr Parrisseaux’s account, saying that the family had violated its terms of service. Jacqueline, Lucien’s wife and Manu’s mother, then posted it again, saying that the family was just hoping to get cards for their son’s milestone birthday.
And that was when thousands of cards started arriving from all over the world.
“I don’t understand why it got so big. Manuel is like us, he is moved to tears,” Mrs Parisseaux told AFP.
The cards arrived in dozens, and eventually local postal workers had to ship them to the house in sacks.
"It snowballed immediately," Mrs Parriseaux said. "We had a few issues with Facebook because our post was shared 120,000 times and they thought we were a business or that we were running a scam."
The cards came from all over the world, including the US, Sri Lanka, and China. A final rush of 3,000 cards on Saturday brought the total number to more than 30,000 – many of which included gifts.
The family says it is overwhelmed by the outpouring of birthday wishes, and that Manuel will be keeping all of the cards. They’re just not sure when he’ll find the time to answer all of them.
