Woman celebrates 105th birthday with 1,500+ cards

HINTON, W.Va. (WVVA/Gray News) – A woman in West Virginia has a lot of reading to do after receiving more than 1,500 cards for her 105th birthday.

Myrtle Brabb celebrated the milestone with cake and ice cream surrounded by family and friends who said she loved going to church.

“She was always real prim and proper. She always wore a hat to church,” Brabb’s niece Juanita Brooks said.

Brooks said her aunt also loves her dogs and her parakeets and would talk to them at the dining room table.

Brabb’s family contacted the Hinton Hope Foundation asking to post a message asking to send her birthday cards.

It generated a wave of cards and letters that washed up at the birthday girl’s feet. Everyone was surprised by the huge response.

“I just thought it might be shared locally in Summers County, and Summers County is very giving. I didn’t know it would be shared across 40 different states,” said Laura Lilly Cochran with the Hinton Hope Foundation.

Brooks said she hopes to read all 1,507 cards to her aunt, even if it takes her 110th birthday to do so.

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