Holloway soon
realized she had a problem. She looked online to buy one of the stuffed sea
creatures, then checked her savings account balance.
“I saw that I
had only $2,” she said. “There was no way I could afford even the cheapest
Manta Ray that I saw for $20.”
With two
weeks to go before her son’s August 26 birthday, Holloway, a single mom from
McLoud, Okla., decided to get creative.
She took a needle and some thread, fetched her son’s old blue baby blanket and cut out a manta ray pattern she’d drawn on a cardboard box.
“I sat on the couch until 1 in the morning, poking myself with that needle until I finally finished sewing it together,” said Holloway, 33. “I took two buttons off one of my blouses and used those for eyes.”
She felt so
proud of her creation that she took to social media and posted a photo on Reddit’s
poverty/finance page, which she follows for money-saving tips.
“My son
wanted a stuffed manta ray for his 5th birthday but I didn’t have money to buy
one, so instead I converted his old baby blanket into one!” she wrote.
“I figured
I’d be lucky to hear from a couple of people,” said Holloway. “I thought I
might get teased because the button eyes aren’t on straight.”
She was
floored, she said, when she logged in the next day and saw that more than
66,000 people had liked the photo of the homemade manta ray she named Roger
after a favorite childhood doll, Roger Rabbit.
“This is so
much better and more special than a store-bought manta ray could ever be,” one
person commented.
“This was made with your own 2 hands and the
love for your son, and that will last a lifetime,” wrote another. “I really
hope you’ll be in a better spot financially soon.”
On his big day, she gave him a birthday cake made of pancakes — and her manta ray. It was his favorite of them all.
“He ran all over the house with it,” she said. “And now he insists on sleeping with every single manta ray — they’re piled everywhere on his bed.”
“I’ve never seen him so happy — I can’t thank
people enough for making him feel special,” said Holloway, who has three other
sons, ages 16, 8 and 2.
“I’ve been having a tough time financially and was feeling like a failure as a parent until this happened,” she said.
Holloway has
been on her own since her divorce two years ago and is unemployed. She
takes classes at a community college to become an Emergeny Medical Technician. About two months ago,
when her mother lost a job in Hawaii, Holloway cleaned out her savings to fly
her mother to Oklahoma.
“It took
every penny I had and that’s why I was down to $2 in savings,” Holloway said.
“I was actually thinking about dropping out of school because I didn’t think I
could pay my tuition this fall.”
People who
saw her post on Reddit have sent her more than $1,500, she said, which allowed
her to pay for her classes and put several hundred dollars in the bank. More
importantly, said Holloway, they made her son’s birthday one he won’t soon
forget.
“One man paid
for us to go to the aquarium in Oklahoma City about 20 minutes away, and
another person bought us tickets to the zoo,” she said. “In both places, Jonas
was able to see manta rays for the first time and pet them.”
Holloway said
she’s grateful for the kindness of strangers, and for the unexpected turn of
events.
“It’s not
about presents and money,” Holloway said. “It’s about love and humanity. The people
who saw my post are a lot like me — they’re not well-off. But they came forward
to lift us up and make a dream true. We’ll carry that happy feeling with us.”
