WOODHAVEN, Mich. (WXYZ) — A downriver community is coming together this Christmas Eve to help lift one man's spirits and it all started with a simple post on social media.
Thomas Gibbons was just asking friends and family to send him some Christmas cards at the nursing home he is living at.
"Just to see if I could get the Christmas spirit going, you know," Gibbons said.
The 58-year-old tells us he thought filling his door up with cards would help lift his spirits this year.
"Christmas Eve was always a special time from when i was a kid, up til last year," Gibbons said. "I shot myself but it ended up giving me a stroke and now my legs don't want to work," Gibbons said.
His original post got about three cards sent to him but his friend Lindsey Dyer knew she could take it up a notch, so, she brought it to the Facebook group "Downriver and Friends".
"I've seen the remarkable things that Downriver and Friends can do and the power of the community and how everybody can rally up behind everybody and make anything possible," Dyer said.
A few days after her post in the group the Christmas cards started flooding in.
"I'm completely blown away by the response and didn't expect it to be as much as it's been," Dyer said.
Gibbons received 30 cards in one day, and counting. Most of the return addresses are from complete strangers.
"I don't even know but a couple people on there," Gibbons said. "It's awesome, it really is."
He wants to remind people that there are so many others just like him, stuck in a nursing home for the holidays.
"Let them know that you know they're still out there, you know what I mean, and I think that's important," Gibbons said.
He said just one phone call, message, or Christmas card can make all the difference in someone's day.
