Garth Callaghan has been leaving inspirational notes with his daughter's lunch since her days in kindergarten—but now that he's dying of cancer, they both know that one day the notes will have to stop. So he's writing hundreds of them ahead of time to fulfill his promise of giving 13-year-old Emma a daily note until she graduates from high school, Gawker reports. The Virginia man needs 826 in all; so far he has 740. "At the end of the day, these notes might be the only thing my daughter has left of me," he tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Among his notes:
- "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. —B. Franklin"
- "Do or do not. There is no try. —Yoda"
- "Dear Emma, Everything in moderation. Except Awesome. You can never have too much Awesome. Love, Dad"
- "Dear Emma, Sometimes when I need a miracle, I look into your eyes and realize I've already created one. Love, Dad"
Doctors give him only an 8% chance of living another 5 years, and he recalls being heartbroken one day after surgery when he saw that Emma had ripped up one of his napkins. But it turned out that she was just tearing out parts he had written on and saving them in her composition book. "My daughter’s a teenager now, so at some point, the notes might cease to be cool," he said. But at this point, "for her and I, this is a special thing that we share." Click to see more notes on
his webpage,
Facebook page, or
Twitter feed. (More
cancer stories.)
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