PLAINFIELD, Ind. – An Indiana mother’s sweet gesture in honor of what would have been her son’s 35th birthday really took the cake.
Toni Wilson-Taylor visited Kroger Bakery in Plainfield on Sunday to purchase a canasta cake, her late son Tyler Wilson’s favorite.
Wilson-Taylor asked the bakery staff to help her surprise another customer with the free confection and a handwritten note, WRTV reported.
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Tyler Wilson died at age 29 in July 2015, shortly after completing his residency at St. Francis Hospital.
Wilson-Taylor’s note to the unsuspecting Kroger customers read:
Today is my son’s 35th birthday, his 5th one in Heaven. In his memory I’ve paid for your cake. Please enjoy, make special memories & hug your children & loved ones tight. My son loved cake!
Love, Toni
Tyler’s mom
By Sunday evening, Carolyn Mick reached out on Facebook to thank her benefactor for the sweet treat and touching tribute.
“Dear Toni.. you know who you are and I want to express how moved I am. This means so much that my husband and I cried together. With the turmoil of things going on it reminds us of what really matters LIFE!” Mick wrote.
Meanwhile, Mick told WRTV that she recently suffered her own personal loss, so Wilson-Taylor’s gesture really touched her heart.
“My husband and I read the note and had a good cry. See, I had just lost my mom three months ago, and with all the turmoil going on, it just was a very moving thing. Because it now gave me an idea to honor my mom, also. So, when I posted the note, it was just meant for a way to let her know that I truly appreciated it and did not truly expect it to be acknowledged as it was,” Mick told the TV station.
And Wilson-Taylor said she shed her own share of tears Sunday watching the gesture’s aftermath play out.
“It was very touching and overwhelming, in a good way. A lot of happy tears (Sunday) and a lot of sad tears. [Tyler] was so well thought of and so loved,” Wilson-Taylor told WRTV.
