Community rallies behind girls who lost mother to mysterious illness

Taylor Swift is doing something heartwarming for two little girls who recently lost their mother to a mysterious illness.

Stefanie Ballard fell ill after a day at the pool with her two daughters, 6-year-old Riley and 4-year-old Reese.

"She woke up the next morning with chills, headache, started getting nauseous, and then started losing muscle control and actually had a fall," said Ballard’s husband Pete.

Doctors were able to identify Ballard’s brain was swelling, but not the illness causing it.

Last weekend, Ballard passed away after not responding to treatment and going into cardiac arrest. Her funeral will be held on Saturday.

Since Ballard’s story has gone public, the community has teamed up to help the family with medical expenses. They organized a yard sale and created a GoFundMe account.

Now, the community is focused on the two little girls Ballard leaves behind.

A close family friend, Stephanie Houghton, told The Bert Show that the community wanted to send the girls to a Taylor Swift concert. They are huge fans.

Bert Show’s Bert Weiss said the Taylor Swift concert request started with a group called The Buckhead Exchange. They wanted to give the girls a few smiles in several months, so they started putting the word out.

That’s when the Bert Show learned about it and decided to take it a step further. Within 24 hours they had gotten in touch with Swift.

“As soon as Taylor Swift said ‘yes we’ll do it’ we put that and the rest of the pieces together,” said Weiss.

Swift said she wants the girls to come back stage. Weiss said they will get to hang out with the superstar.

The Bert Show wanted to make the night extra special so they added in some star-studded pre-concert perks.

“We put together the limousine, dinner, we’re going to make sure these girls have their hair done and we’re going to get clothes for them before they go down and see Taylor Swift in October.”

The concert is set for October 24 at the Georgia Dome.

Read more about the Ballard family here. If you would like to donate, click here

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