Would you share your Dad?
Would you share your Dad with someone who was hurting?
My daughter Melanie, age 8, comes home from school and I can tell there is something different about her. She is usually a very bubbly person with tons of fun stories. Not today. She is filled with emotion and pain.
I asked her how her day was and she says it was fine. But right then she bursted into tears. Immediately I thought she had trouble with a bully or maybe got in trouble for something she did. Nope, that wasn’t it.
She started to tell me that her best friend was crying and missing her dad. He was killed about 3 years ago by a stranger in the streets. Her best friend shows Melanie a photo of him in her school locker. Both of these girls are in the second grade. She goes on to tell Melanie how her dad was shot while heading out to the store to buy them some candy. Melanie says she can’t even imagine not having her Daddy anymore and feels so extremely sad for her friend. She continues to cry as she is telling me this story. She is inconsolable. I actually sat there and cried with her. Then Melanie tells me that she tells her best friend that they can both share her Daddy. Her friend tells her she thinks that would be a great idea.
As I write this I have tears in my eyes for this poor little girl who has such pain. Pain that not many of us feel at that young of an age. There is nothing that can be done to bring her Daddy back but I am so very grateful that Melanie is willing to share her own Daddy with her. I am also grateful that they are such good friends to be able to talk through this pain.
I pray daily that this little girl finds peace and strength to know her Daddy is in a better place and she will see him again one day.
Heartbroken and proud at the same time.
