A Dying Dad Does Something So Inspirational For His Daughter It Will Warm Your Heart
Leaving napkin notes in his daughter's lunchbox is one dying dad's way of showing his daughter that he's thinking about her at school.
By Sadho Ram — 31 Jan 2014, 03:56 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
A thoughtful father who has been diagnosed with cancer has vowed to write over 800 'napkin notes' for his daughter so that she has one in her lunch box every day until she leaves high school
W. Garth Callaghan doesn't know how long he has to live. But he can be certain of one simple thing: No matter his fate, his daughter will have a handwritten note tucked inside her lunchbox each day until she graduates from high school.
mashable.com
Callaghan has received three cancer diagnoses since November 2011, and learned that he has just an 8% chance that he will live longer than five years. Now, he's taking every chance to connect with his daughter Emma in the time he has left.
gawker.com
Armed with a stack of napkins and a ballpoint pen, he started 'Napkin Notes', a project that documents the daily messages he's slipped into Emma's lunchbox since she started second grade
The note-writing has long been a tradition between the father and daughter; it began when Callaghan worked a busy sales job in her elementary school days and wouldn't see her often.
So that she always knew her father was thinking of her, Callaghan would write the notes - which were then just hearts, stars and simple words - and include them in her lunch box.
news.com.au
But over the years, the notes have developed into words of advice or of encouragement on test days, and by the time she was about eight, she'd come to expect the notes.
Some days, she would look at her lunch before he had placed on inside, and she'd demand to know where it was.
The project also strives to encourage others parents to connect with their children through handwritten notes, and is the subject of an ebook released last September
"She does love Napkin Notes and looks forward to them each day," he told Mashable. "She has friends that are jealous of her notes. I am just thankful with the fact that she feels comfortable enough with her own self and shares them with friends."
mashable.com
Callaghan has also teamed up with Because I Said I Would, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making and keeping promises
His promise: To write enough notes of encouragement to last Emma through twelfth grade.
jezebel.com
He needs 826 total; he's currently at 740. Just 86 more to go.
But even though his promise is near completion, he told Mashable that Emma doesn't know about the 826 notes.
mashable.com
"I am sure that I will have to have that discussion with her soon, but honestly, we don't talk about cancer statistics in our home, and I don't want her to focus on that."
