A Nashville native studying abroad found a unique way to keep his family from missing him.
Dalton Ross created a life-size cardboard cutout of himself and mailed it to his mom while he was in London.
To say she enjoyed the gift would be an understatement. Mom Susan Talley has taken the cut-out to different spots around town and posted the photos online.
"The first one I did was at his little brother's basketball game and I just kind of positioned him in the crowd and I had three people come by and think it was the funniest thing," she said.
"Flat Dalton" has been to Lower Broadway, he goes to the dentist and he's even been on at least one hot date with a family Barbie doll.
The real Dalton says that's just his mom's sense of humor.
"She does make a lot of light-hearted jokes and in the house we'll joke around sometimes around Halloween she'll do little pranks," he said on a Skype interview with NewsChannel 5.
And this week when he posted the pictures online it instantly went viral.
"I think he got like 900,000 responses the first day he put it on Reddit," Susan said.
"O'Charley's actually was in the background of one of the photos and they sent us a 100 dollar gift card so it's crazy how far it's spread," Dalton laughed.
Dalton comes home next month, which is a sigh of relief for his mom. But she's still glad he went.
"I didn't want them to ever look back and think I have a what if, what if I went here what if I did this," she said.
Now they just have to decide if there's room for two Dalton's in the next family photo.
"We're definitely bringing it to the airport when he comes home," Susan said.
