Girl's emotional reaction to her 'Letters from Heaven' go viral
When Abby Aldershof Van Metre was only a year old, her parents asked friends and family if they would write a letter to her that they would keep away and save until her 18th birthday. Now, 17 years later, her mother Susie has posted a video of her opening these letters, and the Internet can’t get enough.
“This is a box that my parents set up for me when I was one year old,” Van Metre says at the beginning of the video. “They asked all our family and friends to write me letters for my 18th birthday. It’s never been opened and I’ve never read anything that’s inside and neither has anybody else so I’m going to go through it — and I’m already going to cry.”
In the next video, we see Abby crying.
The thing is, some of these letters were extra special to Abby because a number of the friends and family who wrote letters back when she was only a year old, have since passed away, prompting her to refer to the box as “Letters from Heaven.”
“Among the 25 letters are 7 letters from people who have passed on,” explains Abby’s mother Susie in post accompanying the video. “These include letters from her Grandfather Doug, her uncle John Aldershof, great grandparents and more.”
While the video doesn’t actually allow us any insight into the content of the letter, many were touched by the idea of creating such a special gift.
“Wish my relatives had done this!” commented Catherine Manley Smith.
“Wonderful idea,” said Dannie Faye Matthieu. “I made a scrapbook for one of my grandchildren on his first birthday, of all the current headlines, gas prices, grocery Prices, clothing fads, car models, etc.”
So far the videos have been viewed more than 8 million times with more than 18,000 comments. Many have reached out to Susie wanting to see more video of Abby’s reaction to the time capsule.
“I had to stop filming because I was crying too and wanted to appreciate the moment,” Susie explained. “She did read some of the letters on video the next day. We had no idea how many people would enjoy our story. [But] we feel like the rest belongs to my sweet girl–she even kept a couple of the letters just to herself.”
What do you think of this idea? Let us know your thoughts by tweeting to @YahooStyleCA.
