Duane Sherman, a World War II veteran and Purple Heart recipient, turned 96 years old on December 30th -- and he celebrated the milestone with more than 50,000 total strangers.
Sherman wasn't exactly approaching his birthday with much excitement this year. For his entire life, he always looked forward to receiving handwritten letters and cards on his special day. But sadly, at 96, most of his friends are gone, and everyone else has turned to social media and text messages to express their birthday wishes.
Sherman doesn't use social media, so he wasn't expecting to hear from many people this year. But his daughter, Sue Morse, was going to take care of that.
She went on social media to tell everyone about her father and asked if everyone could mail him a birthday wish. Her request went viral and Sherman was shocked and delighted to receive more than 50,000 birthday cards and letters from people in all 50 states and 10 other countries.
Sherman says he is now working on reading every single one of them.
Some people sent video greetings.