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Tales from the Tabloids: Daddy’s Last Love Letter
Michael William Sellers found out he had pancreatic cancer in 2012, two weeks after Christmas. At the time, doctors told him to expect to die in two weeks. He lived six more months, and before he died, he arranged with a florist to deliver flowers to his daughter, Bailey, who was 16 at the time, on her birthday until she turned 21.
This year, her daddy sent her a beautiful bunch of purple flowers with a card that reads, “This is my last love letter until we meet again. I do not want you to shed another tear for me my Baby Girl for I am in a better place. You are and will always be the most precious jewel I have been given. It is your 21st birthday and I want you to always respect your momma and stay true to yourself. Be happy and live life to the fullest. I will still be with you through every milestone, just look around and there I will be. I love you Boo Boo and Happy Birthday!! Daddy”
from the Daily Mail
Published in General
Beautiful!
This morning I happened to be thinking that the most important thing to leave your kids is the knowledge that you loved them. Then I saw this post. And now, I’m sure of it.
Thanks, Mama Toad.
Thanks for sharing!
OmiGod I’m crying reading this….
Oh, Mama Toad, how sweet and poignant. What’s lovely is that he could look ahead and offer her comfort until that big birthday arrived. And now she has those lovely memories of being loved and cherished. Sigh.
Mmph. Allergies.
When I was still in surgery practice, I had a patient, a woman of about 40, who spent every waking hour recording things that she wanted to tell her children as they grew up. They were preteen at the time. It was the most poignant recollection I have from practice. She was dying of renal cell carcinoma and lived about a month during which I knew her.
Tell me about it, typing that letter was so tough because my glasses kept fogging up and my nose required attention. God bless this man and his family.
What a terrible thing to do to a child. To take their special day of joy and remind them of a life defining tragedy. How selfish. Why her birthday? Why not his birthday? Or his death day? What a jerk.
You’re so absurd I can’t help but chuckle…
My sister-in-law did this for her two preteen daughters as she battled her lymphoma. Hers was the most courageous battle we’ve ever witnessed. She was an an intensive care nurse and had seen the world of suffering and death and smiled and laughed to very end of her own life. She was only 42.
I know, it can be very horribly wonderful to watch such courage and love. An acquaintance is a writer for a local paper, and she is dying with great beauty of breast cancer.
Absolutely wonderful! Super story!
I think my favorite part is the reminder to respect her momma. That just breaks my heart in two…
Thank you, Mama Toad. That is so powerful . . so truly humbling to witness that kind of courage and love. Yes – ” . horribly wonderful . .”