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Alabama girl sells lemonade to raise money for her mother’s headstone

Emouree Johnson looked at the graves in a north Alabama cemetery last month and noticed her mother’s were different from the others.

The 7-year-old saw granite and marble headstones protruding from the grass near other graves, bearing epitaphs. But next to his mother’s grave was a postcard-sized green marker with her name and a generic photo of the sunset printed on white paper.

Emouree pointed to the other headstones and asked, “Why doesn’t mom have one?” “, remembers Jennifer Bordner, the young girl’s grandmother. They went to the cemetery over Easter to lay flowers in honor of Emouree’s mother, Karli Bordner, who died a few weeks earlier at the age of 29.

A headstone would cost at least $500, which the family was trying to save, Jennifer Bordner told her granddaughter.

Emouree wanted to participate. The next day, she set up a lemonade stand in the Scottsboro, Alabama, home where she lives with Bordner. Emouree asked her family members to share photos of her stall on social media to help raise awareness for her cause.

“I knew my grandmother had no money,” Emouree told the Washington Post. “And I was really trying to help him.”

Photos of the booth – which showed Emouree sitting outside with a clear pitcher of lemonade, a green bucket of ice and a stack of red Solo Cups – were shared so widely that over the next week, hundreds of people started to visit the stand and make donations. to an online fundraiser. Emouree ultimately helped raise about $15,000.

“I didn’t expect this,” Bordner, 53, said. “And I’m still trying to catch my breath.”

Bordner’s daughter and granddaughter had lived with her in Scottsboro for about three years. She described her daughter and Emouree’s relationship as “one of those mommy-daughter best friend type things.”

They had a special saying that they repeated to each other: “One, four, three.” That’s enough for me, always and forever,” with the numbers representing the number of letters in the phrase “I love you,” Bordner said.

“She was all for her daughter,” she said of Karli Bordner. “It was his whole world.”

Karli Bordner helped teach Emouree how to play soccer, basketball and softball, then cheered her on at games. After school, they spent hours dancing and making TikTok videos. When Emouree brought home report cards with straight As, Karli Bordner took her shopping for makeup products her daughter had seen on YouTube.

On March 12, Emouree, Jennifer and Karli Bordner spent the night curled up in the same bed, watching Adam Sandler movies before they all fell asleep. And just before Emouree fell asleep, she said she and Karli Bordner whispered to each other:

One, four, three. This is enough for me, always and forever.

It was one of the last things Emouree heard her mother say.

The next morning, Bordner said her daughter had left the house. Police later arrived at her door to report that Karli Bordner had been found dead. The family is still waiting for authorities regarding an official cause, Bordner said.

The days that followed were marked by mourning. Emouree looked back at videos she made with her mother, Bordner said. When she received her next report card, Emouree tried calling her mother’s cell phone, hoping to tell her about her good grades.

“She was always waiting for her mom to come and give her a hug,” Bordner said.

On March 17, which should have marked Karli Bordner’s 30th birthday, the family organized a balloon release. They buried her in the Guntersville, Alabama, cemetery the next day and visited her grave again on Easter to lay flowers.

That’s when Emouree noticed the marker and had the idea to open a lemonade stand. She asked to stop at a produce stand on the way home from the cemetery.

“I bought four lemons,” Emouree told the Post. “And I thought it would help.”

She opened the stand on April 1 and sold her lemonade for $1 a cup.

As photos of his booth spread across social media that week, people came in droves. Foreigners showed up with batches of fresh lemons to help her maintain her stand. Donations started pouring in.

“All of a sudden they call and say all these city officials are coming, several different fire departments, and people are coming from Tennessee,” Bordner said. “I don’t know where all these people come from, but there are a lot of them.”

Emourée poured lemonade for five days. Her grandmother remembered her saying, “I can’t believe so many people care and love my mom. »

“She was really excited,” Bordner said.

Between the lemonade stand and online donations, she said the family received enough to cover funeral expenses and open an account Emouree could use in the future.

As for the headstone, a company is now donating it to the Bordners.

They haven’t yet decided when the monument will be replaced at the cemetery, but Bordner said they know what it will say:

One, four, three. This is enough for me, always and forever.

washingtonpost

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