Little Girl Saves Up Money During The Weeks Before Christmas To Buy A Gift For Her Mom After Her Dad Passed Away
The girl's sweet actions showed her kind and resilient heart.
Studio Romantic | Shutterstock Losing a parent is one of the hardest things imaginable. Doing so at a young age somehow makes the pain cut even deeper.
It certainly forces you to grow up more quickly. Kids are left doing things they normally wouldn’t, just like one little girl whose mom shared her story on Instagram.
An 8-year-old girl went Christmas shopping for her mom on her own after the death of her dad.
Mira Simone described herself as a “widow and grief coach” on Instagram. In addition to helping others with their journeys through grief, Simone shared a piece of her own in a sweet reel that featured her young daughter.
“POV: Your dad died of cancer when you were almost three,” Simone wrote. “Now you’re eight and you instruct your mom to bring you to the local holiday market on a Sunday in December and promise not to watch or follow you.”
Simone continued, “You grab your pink piggy bank under one arm and walk off with your heart of pure gold and a mission only a child who’s lived through profound loss could possibly understand.”
In the video, Simone’s daughter could be seen walking around the market, clutching her piggy bank tightly.
“While her friend’s dads are out grabbing presents ‘from the kids’ for mom — our grieving kids are doing this,” Simone said in the caption. “Buying presents for their surviving parents on their own because their other parent is dead. Their hearts both broken and expanded in the way you only learn to understand after walking through profound loss.”
“I ache for her — the responsibility of it, the planning, the things a child should never have to learn,” Simone stated. “And — what a gift to learn this level of empathy at such a young age. What incredible emotional intelligence she would have never had otherwise. She would have never had to step into.”
“She told me she spent $25 — which is a lot of $3 allowance weeks,” she shared. “I fought back tears at the unfairness of it, the beauty. The love.”
“The extra layers our grieving kids hold are infinite,” she concluded. “I’m sure there are so many I don’t even see.”
Fellow Instagrammers showed compassion for the little girl while also relating to her.
Those who commented on Simone’s reel presented a wonderful balance of showing love for the little girl while also sadly relating to the situation.
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“This post made me sob,” one person said. “My four-year-old son told me he wanted to get me Chanel perfume for Christmas because I lost mine and it’s expensive and [I] wouldn’t buy it again. Broke my heart, empathy and understanding [way] beyond their years.”
Another shared, “My 10-year-old daughter lost her dad at four-years-old. I’m telling you, nobody loves me like that kid loves me. It’s overwhelming at times, and I know there’s trauma attached to it, but it’s so, so beautiful too. A connection and love I’m not sure would’ve been there if it weren’t for our loss.”
This little girl displayed wisdom and resilience beyond her years.
According to Psychology Today, around 5% of children lose a parent before they are fully grown.
There are, of course, a myriad of negative things that can happen because of this kind of loss. However, there may be some positive things to come from it, too, like glimmers of light in the darkness.
“Hard-won, resilience, and wisdom may take root in the fertile soil of misfortune,” said Grant Hilary Brenner, who lost a parent when he was young himself.
Brenner pointed out that two things can be true at the same time. “People are resilient, and also suffer,” he stated.
Although no one should have to go through something so painful, stories like Simone’s and the people who commented on her reel prove that hard things can make you stronger, even when you are just a kid.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.