LC woman receives more than 1,400 birthday cards
Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Courtney Lowry at her home with the 1,460 birthday cards she has received for her 38th birthday. (Rick Hickman/Lake Charles American Press)
Trending
{{tncms-inline alignment=”left” content=”<p>Cards came in from all over Louisiana, as well as Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, North Dakota, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Washington state, New York, Maine, Canada, Italy and Saudi Arabia.</p>” id=”ff5d50cd-8df4-4eda-9e8c-3fed9e35d70f” style-type=”quote” title=”Pull Quote” type=”relcontent”}}
Courtney Lowry of Lake Charles was hoping to receive 100 birthday cards in the mail for her 38th birthday on Monday but received 1,460 after people responded to a request by her parents seeking cards for their daughter.
Ken and Toby Lowry said they earlier asked their daughter what she wanted for her birthday and she responded: “All I want is to get 100 birthday cards in the mail.”
Trending
Courtney, who has Down Syndrome and was recently diagnosed with dementia, said she was “so surprised” to get so many cards and that all of them were for her.
“God is so good,” she said.
Cards came in from all over Louisiana, as well as Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, North Dakota, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Washington state, New York and Maine.
She even received cards from far-flung places such as Canada, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
Toby Lowry said her daughter likes to write people and send them thank-you cards or birthday greetings.
The home of Courtney Lowry. (Rick Hickman/Lake Charles American Press)
“Maybe that’s why she thought of this as her birthday request; because she so enjoys sending cards to others.”
Courtney attended Our Lady Queen of Heaven School when she was a child and she graduated from LaGrange High School.
“She has always been so sharp and high-functioning,” Toby said.
She said the dementia diagnosis has slowed her daughter down a bit and she has to deal with some daily confusion, but there are still things she very much enjoys.
In addition to writing to people, her mother said Courtney has always loved music, attending church services, playing guitar, looking at houses on her computer and going out to eat.
“We were so excited to see our mailbox filling up every day with birthday cards for Courtney,” Toby Lowry said.
She said one day so many cards came at once that her daughter looked at her and said, “Are all of those for me?”
“This has made her so happy and we are so grateful to all of the people that took the time to do something so wonderful,” Toby Lowry said. “It definitely exceeded our expectations and it gave her such a wonderful birthday.”
Courtney enjoyed the cards so much her mother said she fell asleep one evening holding some of the cards in her hands after looking at them over and over again.
Cards came in from all over Louisiana, as well as Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, North Dakota, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, Virginia, Washington state, New York, Maine, Canada, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
