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19-year-old Leela Ali of Canada never saves people's phone numbers, so when an unknown person texted her, she thought nothing of it. This person asked if Leela was "Quentin," and, thinking it'd be funny to go along with it, she replied, "Yea, who's this?" But when it turned out to be someone calling herself "Auntie Dawn" notifying her nephew about a memorial service, Ali thought she should come clean.
"Once they sent the text inviting me to 'Auntie Debbie's Celebration of Life', I let them know I wasn't Quentin," she told Buzzfeed.
But, thinking it would lighten the mood, she jokingly asked if she could come anyway. And to her surprise, Auntie Dawn said yes!
Continuing the joke, Ali asked if she should bring anything, and settled on a fruit bowl.
"When Auntie Dawn actually said I could come, I decided I needed to commit," Ali continued. "I let my close friends know that I was going to a random lady's event, but since they already know my personality and how outgoing I am, they weren't really shocked that I actually went."
It turned out the service was to honor Deborah Celar, who passed away on September 16. Ali arrived, and "started asking around for Auntie Dawn, and when I first saw her I could tell that she was confused."
Luckily, Ali had made good on her promise to not show up empty-handed. "But when I showed her the fruit bowl, she realized I was the girl from the texts and started laughing," she told Buzzfeed.
Auntie Dawn--that is, Dawn Burke, an aesthetician from Niagara Falls--was elated.
"When I saw this person holding the fruit bowl I was very excited. It completed the story," she said, adding that it brought "a rainbow to a cloudy day." Especially since Burke says her Aunt Deb would have loved the joke: "My Aunt Deb would have done the same thing. She had a way to find the good in things and enjoy a good joke."
On Twitter, people were delighted and moved by this lovely random encounter!
Ali and Burke were both shocked that their chance encounter got so much attention on Twitter. But as Burke put it, "In the current world we live in, it was nice to be part of something that was built out of an innocent mistake."
Thanks for the uplift, ladies!
H/T The Independent, Buzzfeed