With only months to live, Claire Lankford received the best possible - albeit belated - birthday present she could have asked for: a royal parade for the little princess in her hometown of Dickinson, Texas.
Hundreds of people gathered on the street, carrying signs and tossing flowers to cheer on the 5-year-old suffering from terminal cancer.
"We just want her to know she is loved. I think that's what anyone would want to know in their lifetime," Kevin Lankford, Claire's father, told ABC news.
Claire was diagnosed with a terminal cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, when she was three years old. So far, doctors have identified five tumors in her lungs and lymph nodes.
Despite such a difficult battle at such an early age, Claire has continued to be a source of joy for others.
"She went through 42 weeks of chemotherapy and four weeks of radiation on her chest and six weeks of radiation on her spine," Patricia Lankford, her mother, who is a principal at Hughes Road Elementary School, told KHSB. "Throughout her treatments she did not have her hair, her eyebrows or eyelashes but she was a source of joy for the doctors and nurses. She would walk around the hospital saying, 'Good evening, good afternoon.' She walked the hallways receiving chemo and at the same time spreading joy."
A local bridal shop helped out with a special princess dress for Claire, who was dressed - along with her mother - as Belle from "Beauty and the Beast." Dressed as Prince Charming, Kevin escorted Claire in a horse-drawn carriage. The neighborhood streets were filled with spectators to welcome their new princess.
The turnout was more than expected, Patricia said.
"I envisioned a carriage, maybe a few people from the community and the school district to come out and support us. This was incredible - incredible to think that people would want to come out and support my child. It's beautiful," Claire's mother said.
