My name is Bailey Sullers, I'm 21 years old,
and I'm from Alcoa, Tennessee.
One year ago, I posted a tweet that changed my life.
I was a complete Daddy's girl, growing up.
He was literally my best friend.
He was very funny.
He was sarcastic, had a very dry sense of humor,
and sometimes you didn't know if he was joking
or being serious, which was even funnier.
My Dad coached me in basket-ball
from the time I was four until I was 16,
so we're really close.
I added Italian tomatoes, and you let it cook
until it's nice and thick.
(soft music)
My Dad was a huge Rachel Ray fan.
When I'd come home from school, or he'd come from work,
we would watch Rachel Ray.
He loved watching her cook, and he had a crush on her too.
When I was 16, my Dad got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,
and a few months after the diagnosis, my Father passed away.
I cried, I was numb, but it was kind of like
a weight lifted off my shoulder in a way,
because I knew that he was no longer in pain,
and in a better place really.
Three months later, after he passed away, I turned 17,
and I received a surprise delivery
of flowers from my Father.
It had a little card in the bouquet.
I opened it up, and it said,
"You will receive these until your 21st birthday.
"I love you, Dad."
and it was like a ghost, like I just had chill bumps
on my arms, it was like crazy emotions.
It meant everything to me
that he loved me that much to pre-plan,
not every milestone, but a lot of milestones for me.
My final bouquet of flowers, I received when I was 21,
was completely different than the other ones.
It was big, it was his cancer color actually, deep purple,
and it was an actual hand-written letter,
which was really awesome.
"Bailey, this is my last love letter to you
"until we meet again.
"I do not want you to shed another tear for me,
"my baby girl, for I am in a better place.
"You are, and will always be the most precious jewel
"I was given."
Every year, I posted the pictures of my bouquets
on social media to make him proud
and show how awesome my father was,
and for some reason this year it went viral.
After I posted the picture of my bouquet,
I had like 300,000 likes, somethin' like that,
and my phone was frozen.
Later on that night, it went to like a million likes,
and however many re-tweets.
It was wild.
When I posted this, so many people reached out to me,
and they told me how this affected them,
and helped them because they had just lost a loved one too,
and it made me feel really good
that I could help somebody, with my story.
My birthday is coming up, and I'm about to be 22,
and this will be the first year
without receiving anything from my Dad.
I don't really know what to expect,
and how that day is really gonna affect me.
I wanna share my story with Rachel
because he loved watching her show,
and if he could se me here right now,
he would be fan-girling it right now.
(audience applauds)
Oh my God, Bailey and I both need tissues.
So, Bailey garnered more than 330,000 re-tweets,
and 1.4 million likes just a day later.
What a special guy?
So did your Dad really watch our show?
Yes, he was a huge fan of you.
It just makes me so happy.
Hi, Dad, and I'm just so happy, I feel like he's here
with us, and what a beautiful, thoughtful, selfless
thing for him to do, you know?
Yeah, for sure.
At a time when he must have been just consumed
with his own worries, he was focusing on you,
and what a gift you were to his life,
that's just lovely.
Thank you.
Well we can't, of course,
have you have your 22nd birthday without flowers,
so there's a very special company,
they're called The Bouqes Company,
get it, like bouquet, the o-u-q, Bouqs?
So Bouqs, of course, has sent flowers
for your 22nd birthday. Aw.
(audience applauds)
But here's the cool thing. Thank you.
This gets a lot better.
We are going to make sure, thanks to Bouqs,
that you get flowers every year of your life
for the rest of your life.
Aw.
Thank you so much.
And of course, any time you're in town,
I will feed you for Dad, 'cause he'd be thrilled.
In celebration of your wonderful Dad,
everybody is gonna get flowers from Bouqs.
Bouquets for everyone.
(audience applauds)
Fill the world with love.