Most people would simply ignore a message that was sent to them by mistake, but he decided to send something back. The message was from a girl, Sydney Uselton, who wanted an opinion on a dress she was trying on.
Tony decided that he would make the young lady’s day, but he had no idea that replying to the text would start a series of events that would change his life.
The picture that Sidney sent was of her in a black formal gown. She took the picture in the dressing room and tried to send it to a friend, but she sent it to Tony by mistake.
Tony wanted to give his opinion on the dress, but he didn’t want her to think he was strange. That is when he took a picture of his five children giving a thumbs up.
“I figured that the children’s response would accomplish that substantially better than some middle-aged overweight bald guy.”
Cindy’s friend saw the exchange on her phone and decided to share it on Twitter. It went viral almost immediately and that is when the truth behind the story began to come out.
Although five children were in the picture, there was a 4-year-old girl, the youngest, who was not home at the time. She was on an appointment for a chemotherapy treatment with her mother.
After Mandi read about what was happening with the cancer diagnosis, she set up a crowdfunding page. Thousands of people donated to the page, with over $60,000 raised so far.
Tony came with an update, saying his daughter is doing well but they still have a little over a year of treatments to go. They said that he wanted to go to kindergarten, but was getting too sick so they had to postpone.
He also said that it was amazing and a blessing because they were backed up to a financial wall. He had been working the entire time but the financial issues were beginning to take a toll.
Rachel, the mother, spoke about how grateful she was for the financial assistance and how it all happened because of a wrong number text.
It’s amazing what can happen when people work for the greater good and think of others before they think of themselves.
