BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — Just three days after his birthday, Dakota Klesath died in his sleep after taking a pill laced with fentanyl.
Klesath’s mother, Tamara Shop, said the death of her only child in August 2022 left her feeling lost.
“It’s tough to think about,” Shop said. “But his memory lives on in a lot of great things.”
By donating Klesath's organs after he passed, Shop said her son gave at least four other people another chance at life.
“Knowing that he lives on in people, it feels weird, but it also feels really great,” she said.
One year after Klesath's death, Shop said she found herself inside a local grocery store on his birthday, wanting to honor her son through a gesture of kindness.
“I just felt this urge that I needed to do something special for somebody else because I couldn’t buy my son a birthday cake,” she said.
With Klesath in mind, she bought a cake for an unsuspecting family.
When the mother of the 13-year-old who received the free cake posted on Facebook, Shop’s note reached thousands.
"I wanted to purchase your cake in memory of my son who is no longer with us, he would've been 26 on the 28th. Because you share this birthday, I wanted to give you a surprise," the note read.
When she paid it forward, Shop had no idea her act would touch so many others.
“When I did it, it was just a spur of the moment — I’m going to make everything happy today because I don’t want to be sad,” she said. “I was really looking for some quiet time for myself and some peaceful memories, and then it turned into something amazing.”
Shop plans to continue buying a birthday cake for one family each year on her son’s birthday.
—
