A Minnesota girl recently saw her longtime wish come true on her 10th birthday.
Eleanor, who was born at a McDonald’s restaurant in Hugo, Minnesota, in 2014, returned to the same restaurant to celebrate her 10th birthday with family and friends.
“She’s always wanted to go back to where she was born,” Eleanor’s dad, Eric Evenson, told ABC’s Good Morning America.
Eric, his wife, Clare,and his mother-in-law were on the way to a birthday party themselves back on Oct. 11, 2014, when they stopped at a McDonald’s so Clare, who was 28 weeks pregnant with Eleanor at the time, could use the bathroom.
“She spontaneously went into labor,” Eric said of his wife. “She went into the bathroom and sat down, and [Eleanor’s] legs popped out.”
Eric, his mother-in-law, good Samaritans and a police officer all rushed in to help deliver Eleanor, who was born 12 weeks early and was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, a type of chromosomal difference.
For her 10th birthday party, a few special friends — including two of Eleanor’s childhood nurses — came out to celebrate.
Eric said Eleanor “loved” going back to where she was born, and added that it was meaningful for all the people who have been part of the family’s “community” over the years to be there, too.
He also said it was an unexpected chance to complete the story for some McDonald’s employees who were part of both Eleanor’s birth and now her 10th birthday.