So I came across this story of a girl and her dad in the US. And It got me thinking in relation to the difference in parenting across the world. are and all of that. Why don’t you read the story first and then we can talk about it.
Everyone loves getting cards on their birthday. But a Tennessee woman got a card from her father that she’ll cherish forever.
Bailey Sellers’ father, Mike Sellers, died of Stage IV pancreatic cancer in 2013, just a few months before her 17th birthday. But her dad made sure he could still celebrate her special day, even in death.
Before his death, he prepaid a flower shop to deliver flowers and a card to her every year on her birthday. The last of the flowers and cards came last week, for her 21st birthday.
shop to deliver flowers and a card to her every year on her birthday. The last of the flowers and cards came last week, for her 21st birthday.
“When I opened this card, I especially felt him with me. It’s a cold feeling, then a happy feeling at the same time,” Sellers, of Knoxville, Tennessee, told a CNN reporter.
In the card that came with this year’s flowers, Mike Sellers told his daughter this would be his last letter to her “until we meet again” and that she shouldn’t shed any more tears over him.
“I am in a better place. You are and will always be the most precious jewel I was given,” he wrote.
Seller’s father also told her that he’d always be with her.
“I will still be with you through every milestone. Just look around and there I will be.”
Touched by her late father’s gesture, Sellers tweeted a photo of the flowers, the card and an old photo of her dad hoisting her up on his shoulder during a long-ago trip to the beach.
“Miss you so much daddy,” the tweet ends, with a little purple heart.
The post lit up Twitter, with thousands of people not only sharing it but also telling their own stories of how they dealt with the pain of losing a parent. Sellers understands that pain; she said she became depressed after her father’s death. So now she’s studying psychology at East Tennessee State University, hoping to be able to one-day help people navigate the kind of grief that once enveloped her.
She thinks her dad would be proud of himself for having pulled off such a beautiful gesture, which offers an important lesson for all of us.
“He would be so proud that he did this,” she said. “He made people happy. He made people realize that they shouldn’t … take the people they care about for granted.”
So let’s get real here. If this girl’s dad was our typical Nigerian dad or mom just parent, do you think he’ll go that far or do all that? Maybe not everything exactly like the flowers but yeah you understand what I’m trying to say. When I read it, that was the first thing that crossed my mind and I started laughing.
First of all, if a typical Nigerian man is dying I hardly think writing a series of letters will cross his mind. I think more things like making sure his family will be okay after he’s gone. But certainly not letter. If there are people like that, then they’re few.
So saying all of that does not mean that Nigerian dads love their kids any less than an American or any other country. We are peculiar and Nigerian parents love their children and show it differently. Some use the tough love method. None of it is wrong it’s just different. And the difference does not necessarily mean bad or negative. I think the variety makes the world a more beautiful place.
