Michael Sellers passed in 2013 from pancreatic cancer. It was a devastating blow to his daughter, Bailey Sellers, as they had been very close. When Bailey turned 17, however, she received a bouquet of red and purple flowers delivered to her after she returned from lunch with friends.
The flowers came with a note, which read ‘You will receive these until your 21st. Love, Dad.’ An emotional moment for Bailey, as her father had just passed three months prior.
Michael Sellers had planned and, knowing his illness would ultimately take his life, had pre-ordered flower arrangements to be delivered to his daughter for the next four years, each including a different loving note.
When she turns 18, pink flowers show up, red for her 19th, pink and white for her 20th, and finally shades of purple for her 21st. Purple is the color that symbolizes awareness for pancreatic cancer, the illness that killed her father.
Sellers’ window, Kristi Sellers, told the Post “He wanted to make sure she knew that she was loved. He wanted to make sure she understands that he was there.”
The most recent flower delivery came with a note that read ‘This is my last love letter to you until we meet again. I will still be with through every milestone, just look around, and I will be there.’
His last note read.
It’s reminiscent of his words to her as a young girl. When Bailey was 12, she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects skin connective tissues, joints and blood vessels. Bailey says her body is in constant pain and she dislocates knees and shoulders once a day.
While she was in the hospital for kidney failure, her father was unable to get the time off work to make the trip with her and her mother. When she awoke after surgery, her father was there, holding a bouquet of flowers, saying “You didn’t expect me to miss this, did you?
Her story has resonated with hundreds of thousands of people online. Michael Sellers had four children whom he loved dearly, but Bailey was the baby of the family. The pair bonded over sports when Bailey played basketball as a tyke, all the way until she was 15. Michael Sellers coached her basketball team until his illness left him incapable of doing so.
They pair practiced at the gym fairly often.
In 2013, Michael Sellers was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Doctors told him he had two weeks, but with chemotherapy could prolong his life a little longer. He decided not to have chemo and lived for six more months before he passed. Shortly before his death, Bailey remembers her dad falling into a coma for two weeks.
He died shortly after that.
Bailey has one of her father’s notes tattooed on her wrist. ‘I’ll be watching over you from Heaven’ adorns her wrist. She will carry that message for the rest of her life, and when she reads it she’ll lovingly remember the man who gave her a reason to carry on.
Please Share With Your Friends and Family
Feature Image Courtesy of The Washington Post (Thewashingtonpost.com)
Connect with us