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Just days after a mysterious illness claimed the life of a Georgia mother, the community is stepping up to help give her 6-year-old daughter a birthday she'll never forget.
Stefanie Ballard died Sunday night after three weeks in the hospital. She became ill after a day of swimming with her daughters Riley, 6, and Reese, 4. Doctors are still trying to figure out what caused her death.
“They’re still not sure why it happened, why she got sick. It’s just very challenging to be in limbo and not know why,” said Ballard’s close friend, Stephanie Houghton.
Ballard left behind her two daughters and her husband, Pete.
Houghton said Ballard had hoped to take her daughter Riley to the Taylor Swift concert for her seventh birthday in October. Swift is performing in Atlanta on Oct. 24 and Houghton says Riley is a huge fan.
“(Riley) has a stage in the bedroom that her dad built her and a microphone and a karaoke machine and she stands on the stage and sings Taylor Swift,” Houghton said.
Without her mom to take her, Houghton says she knew she had to find a way to not only get Riley to the concert, but give her an experience she will never forget.
“(Stefanie) loved her girls more than anything in the world and she wanted them to have experiences,” Houghton said. “If the roles were reversed and it was me that had passed away Stefanie would be doing the same thing.”
So Houghton took to Facebook to not only get tickets to the show, but to give the girls a day they will never forget. The response she got was overwhelming. Now Stefanie’s community is trying to make sure the girls have something to look forward to during this devastating time.
“It took me by surprise how people stepped up,” Houghton said. “Sometimes I get a little choked up when I look at Facebook and look at the response I’ve gotten because I just never expected it.”
People on Facebook volunteered a limo for the girls for the night, a hotel room where they could get ready and have their hair, nails and makeup done, and even offered to pay for the tickets.
"I just want Riley to have a once in a lifetime experience. One that, when she remembers her 7th birthday she doesn't say 'that was the birthday my mom died' but rather 'my mom died, but everyone loved her so much that they wanted to make my 7th birthday special,'" Houghton posted in a private Facebook group.
Friends, family and even strangers are now pleading to Swift on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtags #bigdreamslittlegirl, #balladsforballards and #wishes4riley.
Along with trying to get the girls tickets and hopefully a chance to meet their favorite singer, Ballard's family and friends are asking people to help Ballard's husband, Pete, and the girls financially through a GoFundMe page.
Her husband, who owns a small video production service, faces mounting medical bills and living expenses.
"We're just brainstorming a lot of ideas, on how to help them and the two girls' transition into their new life," friend Angie Chesin told WSB-TV.
Friends are also planning yard sales to help out.
“It’s very sad, and it’s very tragic,” Chesin said. “It’s just a mystery how someone could be perfectly healthy and just two weeks later, be not with us anymore.”
Pete Ballard said his wife developed summer flu-like symptoms after a day at the pool.
The symptoms quickly progressed into aches, dizziness, loss of balance and brain swelling, he said.
“The swelling caused her to be paralyzed on her right side when she went to the hospital,” friend Karen Morianos said.
Morianos said doctors’ tests ruled out that the illness was triggered by a waterborne pathogen.
“They ruled out a lot of things, but could never come up with the cause of what happened,” Morianos said.
Despite the best efforts of doctors, the brain swelling continued, and according to a post online by her husband, Stefanie Ballard suffered a heart attack Sunday night and died.
“It’s just some sort of mysterious illness her body wasn’t able to fight,” Morianos said.
“It’s really been shocking more than anything else. I don’t know that’s it’s really set in for me yet that she’s gone,” Houghton said.
Heather Catlin with Hot Topics contributed to this story.
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