He knew he might never come home from Afghanistan. So, before leaving, this 26-year-old soldier wrote two letters to the people he loved most \u2013 his wife and their baby daughter \ud83d\udc94<\/p>\n
In 2010, U.S. Army Lieutenant Todd Weaver was serving his second tour in Afghanistan when he was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED).<\/p>\n
He left behind his wife, Emma, and their nine-month-old daughter, Kiley. There would be no final goodbye, no chance to hold them one last time.<\/p>\n
But Todd had prepared for the possibility that he might not return.<\/p>\n
Two days after his funeral, Emma opened the laptop he had used during his deployment. On the desktop, she discovered two Word documents.<\/p>\n
One was titled \u2018Dear Emma\u2019. The other was called \u2018Dear Kiley\u2019.<\/p>\n
Todd had written a goodbye letter to each of them, and the words he left behind revealed just how much he loved his family.<\/p>\n
In his letter to Emma, he began with words no wife should ever have to read:<\/p>\n
\u201cWell if you are reading this, I guess I did not make it home and therefore, I was not able to remind you again of how much I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reassured her that his love would never disappear, writing:<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I may not be here right now, take comfort in the fact that I am watching over you right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also urged her to be strong for their little girl and reminded her that she deserved to find happiness again, even after losing him.<\/p>\n
Then came the letter to Kiley.<\/p>\n
Todd knew his daughter might be too young to remember him. He wanted her to know how much she meant to him, and just how special the day she came into the world had been.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best day of my life was the day you were born,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He also left her a heartbreaking apology:<\/p>\n
\u201cI am so sorry I will not be able to see you grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Todd didn\u2019t want the letter to be only about sadness. He filled it with advice for the life ahead of her, encouraging her to work hard at school, be kind to others and remember to say her prayers.<\/p>\n
He ended by reminding her:<\/p>\n
\u201cYour Daddy will always be proud of you and will always love you.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Emma, discovering the letters was incredibly difficult. But she later explained that, although the words were hard to read, they brought her peace and courage.<\/p>\n
She eventually chose to display both letters on her wall.<\/p>\n
More than 16 years after Todd\u2019s death, his words remain a lasting connection between a father and the little girl he never got to watch grow up.<\/p>\n
He may not have been there to say goodbye in person, but he made sure his wife and daughter would never have to wonder how much he loved them \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n
Thank you for your service, Todd. May you rest in peace. Your courage, sacrifice and love for your family will never be forgotten \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\ude4f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He knew he might never come home from Afghanistan. So, before leaving, this 26-year-old soldier wrote two letters to the people he loved most \u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-viral-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18827,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18825\/revisions\/18827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/viralscontent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}