The passing of a parent is always extremely hard to bear. The pain has a tendency to make us feel like small, helpless children again. In our darkest moments, we often wish for the ones who've left us. One brave mother spared her daughter a little heartache and offered up some amazing advice that all of us could stand to use in a heartbreaking final letter to her kids.
Eighteen-year-old Hannah Summers and her three siblings lost their mother on Tuesday, October 31.
The 55-year-old woman had been diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer in June 2016 and spent the better part of the year fighting to stay with her family for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, Margaret "Peggy" Summers passed away in her hospital bed at Parkview Memorial Hospital in Indiana on Halloween.
Hours after her passing, Hannah and her siblings discovered something amazing in their mother's dresser.
Inside were letters addressed to each child that were filled with tons of emotion and some pretty sound advice. Hannah shared hers on social media.
"I tried my best to beat this terrible disease but I guess God had other things for me to do," Peggy wrote. "Please don't be mad, bad things happen in life and we have to learn to deal with it no matter how much it hurts."
The letter went on, giving Hannah encouraging words for finishing school, fulfilling her dream of becoming a nurse, and being patient with her father. Peggy even offered her daughter some practical advice, reminding her to keep an emergency kit in her car and "stay away from parties."
The letter ends on an even more inspiring note.
"Remember that I am still with you and still just as proud of you as I always have been. Keep God in your life and never be ashamed to let others know you love God. If you have kids someday make sure they know how much I love them and wanted to be there to see them."
She adds, "Enjoy life and live each day as if it is your last because none of us know if today will be the last."
Hannah shared the letter on Twitter with a reminder to "hug your parents a little closer and never take them for granted."
In an interview with Today, Hannah said that reading her mother's letter made her mourning a little easier to bear. "It was really hard to read, but at the same time it brought me a lot of comfort because it helped me realize she's always gonna be here with me,'' she said. "I think she wanted to write it to make sure we all knew that she's with us and to give us some closure."
Of course, Hannah wasn't the only person inspired and comforted by Peggy's words.
After the post gained over 91K retweets in only a few days, many people used the social media platform to thank Hannah for sharing the letter and profess their desire to follow the mother's wise words.
Hannah said that the heartbreak over her mother's passing still lingers, but that she fully plans on taking her mom's words to heart.
She also told Today that she is forever grateful to her mother for leaving her with something so beautiful and meaningful. "I can't imagine how hard that must have been for her to write, but it shows what kind of person she was,'' she said. "She wasn't thinking about herself when she wrote them, she was thinking about us."
