Dinwiddie High School students Elijah and Allie were escorted to their homecoming dance Saturday with a parade of trucks and lights, organized by their mothers, Tara Sample and Amanda Jones. The moms, whose children need a little extra support, say they wanted to make the night unforgettable.
"For both of us, when our children received the diagnosis that they have they each have a different diagnosis we didn't know what their life would be like," Sample said. "To be able to have moments like this where we can give them some normalcy and allow them to have experiences like every other teenager and that's what they want, too that means everything to both of us."
Jones said she never knew if her daughter would reach this moment.
"It's very overwhelming, in a good way, right? So I've never known if Allie was gonna even live this long, and to see her have the opportunity to have an experience that every other high school student gets to have, it takes my breath away," Jones said.
The two families live about an hour apart, but the moms have been friends for a long time. The match came together after Sample posted on social media, hoping to find her son a compatible date for the dance.
"Amanda commented on the post she's already been on my friends list for a very long time so when she commented on there, I immediately shot her a text message, and I was like, 'Hey, I think this might be great,'" Sample said.
After the families let Elijah and Allie FaceTime, the two hit it off. They started telling everyone at school how excited they were. Then Elijah made it official, asking Allie to the dance with a handmade sign on the sideline of the Petersburg homecoming game.
"She didn't know that he was gonna officially ask her there," Jones said. "She was really excited when she saw him walking up with flowers. He just sends the sweetest little messages, telling Allie she's beautiful and she's so pretty. He's the sweetest guy."
Sample said the parade grew out of the families' love of car shows.
"We go to car shows anyway, so I was like, 'Hey, why not make this a big deal, make this special for them?'" Sample said. "Have them escorted there with all the trucks, the lights, and kind of make it a big deal because they're a big deal. Everything that everybody else takes for granted, it's been much more difficult for them to achieve."
Jones added, "Any chance to celebrate, we're gonna take it."
For both moms, the goal is simple.
"To have our children live as normal lives as possible, and live it to the fullest to provide them with the same experiences that we are providing for our typical children. They just need a little extra support with that," Sample said. "We just want them to be happy. That's all we want them to be happy."
The friendship is already blossoming. Elijah and Allie have been on a date at a Mexican restaurant, and their moms expect the bond to continue well beyond the dance.
Sample said Elijah is a little shy while Allie is more outgoing, but both love to dance.
"They both love to dance, so they'll both warm up in a minute," Jones said.
