Video: Woman Recruits LA Neighbors To Surprise, Serenade Fiancé On His Birthday From Their Apartments
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Traditional birthday parties are out the window in this time of coronavirus and social distancing, but that didn't stop one Los Angeles woman and her neighbors from surprising her fiancé.
Hannah Chung surreptitiously wrote 76 note cards to her neighbors and slipped them under their doors, asking them to help her sing "Happy Birthday" to her fiancé Jason Shields from the safety of their own apartments.
In a video posted to TikTok and Instagram, Shields looks at Chung quizzically when she tells him to open a communal hallway window. She shouts out into the courtyard, "One, two, three!", prompting a chorus of singing from dozens of neighbors.
She also asked the neighbors to record the building-wide serenade and asked them to send it to her. One of the neighbors even waved a "Happy Birthday" sign from their window.
The couple -- she's a modeling photographer and he's a filmmaker/photographer -- have been together five years and were scheduled to get married this weekend. Those plans were scuttled by the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent shutdown.
So Chung decided one disappointment didn't have to lead to another and sought the help of the neighbors of the historic Downtown LA apartment building she and her fiancé had just moved into to help her mark his birthday in the best way they could under the circumstances.
"It was all very sweet how everyone came together to celebrate a stranger's birthday during a time of isolation," Chung said in an email.
Shields, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, said the surprise was "just wild."
