I Wish She Could Have Met You, Dad

The Sweetest Mother's Day Gift!

Dad,

Today marks nine years since the day you passed away. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you. Sometimes I cry, scream, even isolate myself to try to make sense of it all, and today started out no different. Everyone says I have to face it head on, in order to cope with your loss, but I just didn’t know how.

And I figured today would be a good day to start learning, so with the help of your granddaughter, that’s what I’m doing now.

She’s six and her eyes are like yours. She loves art, dance, being outside, and she can put a smile on anyone’s face. She worries about others, doing what’s right versus what’s easy, and there’s not a mean bone in her body. Crazy, right? You’d think she’d have my hot head but no, she was blessed with your grace.

I can only imagine how close the two of you would be, and how spoiled she’d be if you were here. You’d give her everything she wants and asks for, like a grandpa should. You’d teach her about fishing, grilling, NASCAR, and wood work. You’d show her that helping others is important and how turning the other cheek is the most powerful thing you can do, and I’m happy to say she already knows that part. Because all the love, kindness, and empathy you held is in her, too.

It’s like she was made with all your best qualities, sewed up into one amazing little girl. One amazing little girl who you’ll never get to meet, but I didn’t want to spend today crying. I was done with passing this day by year after year with depression. I wanted to show your granddaughter everything about you.

So instead of 24 hours of sobs and not eating, I spent today laughing. We ate snacks and looked at pictures of you. I told her about all the cool things you’ve done and the things you would show her if you were with us . . . like how the tides work, how you got your horse trophies, how Dale Earnhardt was your man, and how kindness is above all. We spent today celebrating you, your accomplishments, your big heart, and your love. We talked about how beautiful your life was, how you’re in a better place now, and how even though I know it’s this way for a reason, “I wish he could have met you.” She blurted out a response that swelled my eyes with the happiest tears: “No, I wish I could have met him, I love him”.

She loves you, Dad. I wish she could have met you, but whether she’s met you in person or not doesn’t matter, she loves you nonetheless. And I know you love her. At that moment I knew I was learning to cope.

Today, I learned she doesn’t have to meet you to know you. I learned to let you live on through me, through memories, through photographs, through life lessons. I learned to be happy for you, happy that you lived a great life and you’re no longer suffering, happy that my daughter shares the blood and traits of an amazing man . . . and thankful that she has the best granddaddy as her guardian angel.

You may also like:

Even Though You’re In Heaven, Your Grandchildren Will Know You

To Those Who Know the Bitter Hurt of Losing a Parent

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

death of a parent grandparents Grief loss Memories

Megan Willis

Megan is a creative writer, mystical arts practitioner, and free-range mom of 2. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Child Development and is a former Early Childhood teacher of 12 years. Megan enjoys spending time with her family, writing, gardening, Netflix & food! 🥰

I Miss Having Parents

In: Grief

Grown daughter posing between smiling parents

I have been living with the ache of loss for so long that I truly don’t remember what it feels like not to carry it. Sometimes it rests quietly beneath my ribs, dormant and almost polite. Other times it rises without warning—on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, in the middle of a coffee line—and cuts straight through me. Today, it was a song. I was waiting for my coffee when “Pictures of You” by The Cure drifted through the café speakers. I hadn’t heard it in 20 years. In my twenties, it meant heartbreak—young love unraveling, relationships ending before they were...

Keep Reading

What No One Tells You about Losing a Sibling

In: Grief

Nobody tells you that when you lose a sibling, your entire childhood flashes before your eyes. There’s no better witness to what you experienced growing up than that one person who was standing nearby for all of it. And when they’re gone, a part of that childhood and a part of that story goes with them, because it was only ever known between the two of you. There’s no last chance to say, “Remember when?” or to laugh about the things that made you laugh to tears together, a million times at the kitchen table. There’s no last conversation about...

Keep Reading

Grief Didn’t Break Me, It Rearranged Me

In: Grief

I survived losing my father after his long, grueling battle with cancer. It was one of the most difficult seasons of my life. I had a front row seat to watch cancer pick him apart piece by piece. When you lose a parent, you lose a part of yourself. They say time heals all wounds, but you never stop missing the good ones, and there are days when it feels like it just happened. By the grace of God, I survived, but I will always miss my father. Then, almost a decade later, I lost the career that helped me...

Keep Reading

I’m Learning To Be Soft and Strong

In: Grief

During the weeks we cared for my grandmother in hospice, survival mode felt necessary. There were medications to track. Visitors to update. Logistics to manage. I remember sitting on the couch that served as my makeshift bed and listening to the rhythmic hissing and puffing of the oxygen machine one night. While my mom showered off the day, I texted my sister updates and sent my husband a quick message of love. I could still smell the lavender candle we had lit earlier in the day to mask medical scents. The house was quiet, but my mind wasn’t. I was...

Keep Reading

The Legacy Our Mothers Leave Is In the Details

In: Grief

Woman's hands holding beautifully wrapped small gift

It has been two months and nine days since my mom passed away. The first several weeks were spent on the details and logistics of planning her service. She passed in December, so once her beautiful service had passed, I busied myself with the preparations for Christmas. By mid-February, I finally began to process some feelings of grief on a deeper level. The quiet of this less-busy season is allowing the grief to soak in a bit more. Not the big things; not the obvious, grief-heavy reminders that stop me in my tracks. Instead, I’ve been noticing the small things....

Keep Reading

You Never Get Over Losing Your Mother

In: Grief

It’s been 10 years since I last heard my mother’s voice. Ten years since I could pick up the phone and ask a question I already knew the answer to, just to hear her say it anyway. Ten years since someone loved me in that very specific, unconditional, occasionally annoying way that only a mother can. My mom died in 2015. And while “passed away” sounds softer, more polite, the truth is that she left. Suddenly. Permanently. With no forwarding address. She was gone. What I’ve learned in the decade since is not what I expected. I thought the biggest lesson...

Keep Reading

My Husband Is By My Side Through Every Storm

In: Grief, Marriage

The year 2025 began as a quiet storm. I was slipping into the fog of depression while navigating the early chaos of perimenopause, and some days simply getting out of bed felt impossible. My thoughts felt dark and heavy, my body unfamiliar, my energy nonexistent, and my moods uncontrollable. And yet, in the haze, there was one constant: my husband. He noticed the subtle shifts I barely acknowledged. The sighs, the quiet retreats into myself, the moments I almost broke. Instead of judgment or frustration, he offered presence. He held space for my struggle without trying to “fix” it, and...

Keep Reading

Losing My Mom Shaped Me As a Mother

In: Grief

Becoming a mother has a way of bringing old wounds back to the surface, even ones you believed had healed. I never imagined grief would surface so strongly in my motherhood journey. I thought it was something you carried silently, something that faded with time. But becoming a mother felt like my loss rising to its feet and saying, I’m still here There are moments when I reach for my phone to call my mom, only to be met with the reminder that I can’t. I want to ask her if what I’m feeling is normal, if the exhaustion softens,...

Keep Reading

Memories of My Grandma Live On

In: Grief

Be intentional. Take the picture. Create memories. Because even when we think we have all the time in the world, one day it will slip away. Sadly, this is exactly what happened to my grandma and me. While I was growing up, my dad and his parents had a strained relationship, and they were estranged for about the first five years of my life. Thankfully, they reconciled, and my grandparents and I finally had the opportunity to establish a much-anticipated relationship. Though I was never able to form the same closeness with them as I had with my maternal grandparents,...

Keep Reading

Netflix Captured What I’ve Treasured for 17 Years: My Daughter’s Room Exactly How She Left It

In: Grief, Motherhood

Girl's bedroom with posters on the wall and toys on the bed

It was a Sunday evening. I was alone, scrolling through Netflix, searching for something, anything, to fill the quiet. Then I stumbled upon a documentary I had no clue existed, called All the Empty Rooms. After reading the description, my heart immediately went out to all the parents who contributed to this film, and to the man behind it, Steve Hartman, whose compassionate heart radiates in every frame. One statement he said hit me like a freight train: “What we need to talk about is the child that’s not here anymore.” Period. Powerful truth. Curiously, I started watching. Then I...

Keep Reading

Our Teens Are Battling Academic Anxiety—and Parents Are Part of the Problem

Teen

Our Teens Are Battling Academic Anxiety—and Parents Are Part of the Problem

If This Messy Mom Bun Could Talk

Motherhood

I Wish She Could Have Met You, Dad

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Megan Willis

I Miss Having Parents

What No One Tells You about Losing a Sibling

Grief Didn’t Break Me, It Rearranged Me

I’m Learning To Be Soft and Strong

The Legacy Our Mothers Leave Is In the Details

You Never Get Over Losing Your Mother

My Husband Is By My Side Through Every Storm

Losing My Mom Shaped Me As a Mother

Memories of My Grandma Live On

Netflix Captured What I’ve Treasured for 17 Years: My Daughter’s Room Exactly How She Left It

Get It Now

So God Made a Mother

I Wish She Could Have Met You, Dad

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

I Miss Having Parents

What No One Tells You about Losing a Sibling

Grief Didn’t Break Me, It Rearranged Me

I’m Learning To Be Soft and Strong

The Legacy Our Mothers Leave Is In the Details

You Never Get Over Losing Your Mother

My Husband Is By My Side Through Every Storm

Losing My Mom Shaped Me As a Mother

Memories of My Grandma Live On

Netflix Captured What I’ve Treasured for 17 Years: My Daughter’s Room Exactly How She Left It

Previous Post

Next Post

You May Also Like