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Every year on October 29, at exactly 1:11 a.m. - the time he was born - Josh Chace's mother would send him a birthday text.
"Happy birthday to the best guy I know," she wrote him in 2012.
"A very happy 35th Josh," she wrote in 2014. "Dad and I are very proud of you and your family."
After Chace's mother, Carol Chace, died unexpectedly in 2021, the 1:11 a.m. birthday messages stopped. The annual silence became a painful reminder of the loss.
"She would stay up the night before my birthday just to text me," said Chace, who lives in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
On his birthday last year, Chace shared screenshots of his mom's old 1:11 a.m. messages on Reddit, figuring others might relate.
"I think it helps people," he said, adding that he also felt it would be a way to "keep her memory alive."
He did not expect the post to resonate so broadly. But more than 2,500 comments poured in, many from people saying their mothers had the same tradition.
"My mom used to do this too. Every year at 9:52 pm. I really miss that," someone commented.
"Everyone has presumably experienced some form of loss at some point, and it's almost like we're all connected in some way," Chace said. "It makes you feel good."
This year, when Chace woke up on his 46th birthday, he reached for his phone and expected a handful of birthday texts from friends and family. Instead, he had dozens of messages from strangers on Reddit.
Then he saw the time-stamps: 1:11 a.m.
"A bunch of people set reminders," Chace said. "It's wild."
People who had seen his post last year stayed up or scheduled messages to wish him a happy birthday at exactly the minute his mother used to. Some even apologized for being a few minutes late.
"It was so unexpected," Chace said, noting that many more messages tricked in throughout the day from Reddit users. "It's overwhelming but in a great way."
Chace wrote another Reddit post, sharing what happened this year - and people were as touched as he was.
"Last year I made a post here about how my Mom used to always text me at 1:11 on 10/29 to wish me happy birthday, and that losing her 4 years ago meant I wouldn't get them anymore, which sucks... This morning I woke up to an inbox full of birthday wishes from folks who apparently set reminders," he wrote.
Thousands of people upvoted it, and hundreds wrote him kind or funny notes and birthday wishes.
"I'm glad there's still humans among us," wrote one person.
"i'm cryin! it's 11:20am and i'm cryin!" wrote someone else. "happy birthday bub"
"Happy Birthday dude. Have a great day!" another person commented. "Sometimes the internet sucks, but this isn't one of those times."
Chace said the unexpected flood of messages brightened an otherwise difficult day.
"I woke up this morning feeling like today was a down day," he said. "It changes the trajectory of your day when you see stuff like this."
Chace said his mom would have loved to see strangers carrying on her birthday tradition. He described her as "the life of the party" who never forgot someone's birthday or anniversary. She made new friends everywhere she went.
"She was the loudest person in the room," Chace said. "She was a huge Jimmy Buffett fan and golfer and sailor with my father."
"She was the loudest person in the room," Chace said. "She was a huge Jimmy Buffett fan and golfer and sailor with my father."
Carol died suddenly in September 2021, a few days after having a heart attack. She was 67.
"She was the loudest person in the room," Chace said. "She was a huge Jimmy Buffett fan and golfer and sailor with my father."
"She was really the linchpin of our family," Chace said. "She made sure everybody stayed connected."
Although nothing could replace his mother's birthday messages, he said, the kindness from strangers has been a salve.
"This is what we want humans to be," he said. "These types of stories are the best ones."
For Chace, the 1:11 a.m. messages may no longer come from his mother, but he said they still carry her spirit and warmth.
"She was the kind of person who would do this for a stranger," he said.
In fact, he said, "she probably has."
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