Boy gets postcard from dad years after his death
LITTLETON, Colo. — A young boy recently received an unexpected message in the mail from his father Joseph, who died two years ago from a rare disease.
Rowan's dad was a hardworking man who wanted to give his son the best life he could. It was why Rowan's mother, Julie Van Stone, said Joseph joined the Navy and went to MIT to get two masters degrees.
While at school in Boston, he would often write to Rowan. Even when he left school and was driving back to Colorado, he would send postcards from each state he stopped in. Those postcards were sent in 2007.
"I vaguely remember him saying I sent 5 or 6, and I only got 3 or 4 in the mail. But I never thought anything of it," Van Stone said.
Those postcards and pictures are priceless memories for Van Stone and her son, especially after Joseph passed away from a rare neurodegenerative disorder called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
"It's a brain diseases that kind of turns your brain into a sponge," Van Stone said.
Rowan never had a chance to say goodbye.
But, on Saturday, just days before the two-year anniversary of Joseph's death, a postcard arrived in the mail. It was postmarked June 10, 2007.
The message read: "Hello from Pennsylvania. I love you, and I miss you so much. See you soon. Love, Daddy."
Nearly eight years after the postcard was sent, it somehow made its way to Rowan. Neither he nor his mother knows how it happened, and they may never know. But, they have their own ideas why.
"I feel like that was the final goodbye that he didn't get to say," Van Stone said.
Van Stone says Joseph's last words to her before he died were: "Everything is a circle. We will see each other again. All that matters is love."
Here at the Paste BN network, not only do we want to provide you with the current events of the day, but also a little dose of inspiration while you're getting your news fix. Inspiration Nation is our way of providing you with that jolt of good news to bring a smile to your day.