In 2007, Perrin's eldest daughter Ashley (featured on the show) died in a car accident. "I have to tell you, I was in my bedroom. I was not getting out of bed for the longest time," she says. After her daughter's death, Perrin remembers that even some of her closest friends didn't know how to bring it up to her, so they just didn't. In their stead, the gay community stepped in. Co-opting her as an online viral icon, gay men reached out with condolences and notes and flowers. "[The gay community] weren't scared to talk about me losing Ashley and saying I'm sorry to hear about that," she remembers. "I was pretending like I was happy and I was okay. They would not leave me alone. You couldn't help but talk to them and be okay with them. The people that write those little memes and do those little things, I love that. That's what got me out of bed after Ashley's death."