ESQUIMALT, B.C. — “Hi, Tooth Fairy! It’s Lexi,” the girl smiles into the camera, revealing a missing front tooth. “Thank you for going to all the houses and collecting all the tooths.”
The video shows one of the small ways Lexi Townsin could be kind to others, and why her big brother Felix was trying to find a big way to show his gratitude for Lexi on her upcoming birthday.
“Lexi’s always spreading love,” the 13-year-old says. “[She] just makes you feel like you’re the best person ever.”
The best despite her feeling the worst. Lexi suffered from the ultra-rare Bleu Syndrome, which caused debilitating inflammation throughout her body.
“[Yet] she somehow managed to still display love even when she was in excruciating pain,” Felix says.
And somehow, despite it being just weeks since the anniversary of her unexpected death when she was six, and just days before what would have been her 10th birthday, Felix came up with a plan to celebrate his sister.
“[I’m] trying not to focus on her loss,” Felix says. “But how she’s still here.”
So Felix posted a video, inviting people to commit random acts of kindness in Lexi’s name.
“It would make me so happy to see her love spreading around the world,” Felix says in the video as Lexi’s therapy dog Max seems to bark in agreement.
Felix asked for people to tell him how they spread “Lexi love,” sending a photo or writing a message through his website and sharing the act on social media using the hashtag #lexilove.
People started responding by posting pictures ranging from making donations to a food bank to volunteering for a charity.
“It just feels so great seeing all these people spreading love,” Felix smiles.
While Felix’s folks — Cheryl-Lynn and Troy Townsin — couldn’t be more proud of their son's efforts, they also couldn’t be more surprised to see the results.
“[Felix] said, ‘By her birthday, imagine if we could get 100 [acts of Lexi love],” Troy smiles. “And it happened within a few days.”
“So we’re like, let’s bump it up to 500,” Lexi smiles. “And then that was surpassed.”
Now Felix is closing in on achieving his new goal of 1,000 acts.
It’s inspired strangers around the world to spread kindness, from a couple buying gift cards for the needy in California, to a woman paying for a rescue cat’s surgery before it was adopted by someone else in Scotland.
“It makes us feel like Lexi is still with us,” Felix says. “Because it feels like Lexi’s the one who’s doing all this.”
Like his sister praised the Tooth Fairy for offering a gift after a loss, Felix is committed to inspire others to spread love as Lexi’s legacy.
