A little girl’s words to her mum are truly inspirational.
Let’s start at the beginning.
Humans of New York posted the below image to Facebook with this caption:
“My father never liked me. The last time I saw him, I hid from him. We both went to visit my grandmother at the same time. When I heard that he was on his way, I hid beneath the staircase, and I watched his back as he walked away. I never saw him again. My sister was with him when he died. She says he cried a lot.”
Since the post first went up at the end of 2014, it has received almost 84,000 likes and 2,200 comments of Facebookers sharing their stories of being abandoned by their dads.
But there is one comment that struck a cord with everyone on the internet.
"My daughter has not seen her biological dad since she was four. She's 11 now. When she was two he contacted me and asked if I would allow him to terminate his parental rights so he could stop paying child support and I agreed. I wanted to spare her the heartache of a revolving door father and the sacrifice of the financial support was well worth him never being able to disappoint her again.
I never lied to her about where he went or who her dad was. I have always answered her questions in the most age appropriate way possible.
When she was four he contacted me and told me he has been diagnosed with cancer and would like to see her. I set aside a day and we met in the park. He had asked for two hours. He stayed 20 minutes and we never heard from him again.
Over the summer we ran into somebody that knows him and they commented on how she looks like his other children. They elaborated that he has settled down and has a family now.
My stomach tied itself in knots thinking of how hurtful that must be to my daughter. I cut the conversation short and we got in the car to leave and that's when I saw her smiling.
She said "mom.. He figured out how to be a dad. That's such a nice thing. I'm happy for his kids." And that's he day an 11 year old taught me all I need to know about forgiveness."
- Jennifer Thomas
The comment has since been removed from the thread, but it was shared by many people including Tumblr MISSADVENTURES. When she posted it, she received an overwhelming response, taking to Tumblr to say:
"I have since been in contact with Jennifer; I figured she might be interested in learning that she and her daughter became a tumblr sensation seemingly overnight."
Thomas responded with:
"My daughter, Meredith, and I have been watching this spread and enjoying it very much… Meredith has had a difficult life and has met every difficulty with poise and grace and I truly wish I could take credit, but she was just kind of born amazing.
You’ve [all] made a little girl very happy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."
The post by Thomas continues to strike a cord with everyone and is once again doing the rounds on the internet.
Sometimes it takes an 11-year-old girl to show us what really matters in the world.
