Story Archive

This Lady Takes the Cake

Lisa Aldrich needed a birthday cake, so she went to the Meijer store in Gaines Township, Mich., picked out a cake, and located a “bakery-looking employee” to put a message on it. She accepted the completed cake and thanked the employee without looking at the results. “After looking, I nervously laughed and headed to checkout,” Aldrich said. “It didn’t really matter to me that it looked so bad; I thought people would think it was funny.” When other employees saw it, though, they “didn’t think it was so funny.” Several cashiers and a manager came over to see the message, “Happy Birthday Mandy” scrawled on the cake. “To my surprise, after they discussed it, one cashier put her arm on my shoulder and said, ‘The girl who wrote that has Autism. Thank you for smiling and thanking her — even though she’s not supposed to write on cakes, you probably made her day.” She posted a picture of the cake on Facebook and it went viral, with over 55,000 shares, including one by long-time Autism advocate and Michigan Lt. Governor Brian Calley. “I just feel the need to say again — I didn’t do anything special,” Aldrich wrote in another Facebook post. “Be nice. That is all.” (MS/WOOD Grand Rapids) ...Nobody expects that on the Internet!