A father who died in 2013 from pancreatic cancer wanted his youngest daughter to know that his love for her would go on. Sensing his own fate, the father had planned for flowers to arrive each year on her birthday after he was gone. On her 21st birthday, the bouquet came with a note. In 2017, Bailey Sellers, then 21, a student at East State University in Tennessee, shared on her Twitter post that she had been receiving flowers from her late father every year on her birthday since she was 17. She said that he had arranged for the floral birthday gifts to continue until she turned 21. She received her last bunch of flowers, a purple-and-white bouquet, two days before her 21st birthday on Nov. 26, 2017. Along with the bouquet came a note, which read, “Bailey, This is my last love letter to you until we meet again. I do not want you to shed another tear for me, my baby girl for I am in a better place.”
My dad passed away when I was 16 from cancer and before he died he prepaid flowers so I could receive them every year on my birthday. Well, this is my 21st birthday flowers and the last. Miss you so much daddy. 💜 pic.twitter.com/vSafKyB2uO
Bailey Sellers (@SellersBailey) November 24, 2017
Bailey’s father, Michael Sellers, was 56 and a father of four when he died of pancreatic cancer on Aug. 25, 2013. Bailey, who was a high school student in Knoxville, Tennessee, opted for homeschooling to help her mother, Kristy, and to be near her father.“I became home-schooled so that I could help my mom out … because he couldn’t work anymore,” she said. Father and daughter forged a deep bond during those trying times. Bailey recalled how when she turned 17 she received a bunch of purple flowers with red roses and one white rose three months after his death. With it came a note that read, “I loved you first … happy 17th! Love, Dad.” She also learned that she would be receiving flowers for her birthday until she turned 21, as a token of his enduring love. Kristy said she knew of her husband’s plan to have the arrangements sent to Bailey.“We were sitting on the couch and it was about a month before he passed away and he said he had already done it,” said Kristy. “He said, ‘I’m going to do it until her 21st birthday. And if she’s married, ask her significant other to send her flowers in remembrance of me.’” Bailey’s mom added how Michael had also made similar arrangements for all their children, whose ages range 21 through to 33. Each would receive an embroidered handkerchief, which Michael had prayed over before his death. He requested his two eldest daughters, Morgan and Abigail, both 25, to put the handkerchiefs in their wedding bouquets when they got married. Bailey recalled what a wonderful selfless dad he had been. She said, “He was my best friend. I looked up to him so much. He was just an overall great person.”