Woman Leaves Note at Late Dad's House Asking Owners to Buy Porch Bench. She Receives a Surprising Response (Exclusive)

• Erica Monaghan's dad, Rick, used to own a house in Prescott, Ariz., a couple of hours from where she lived with her kids

• Before he died from cancer, she would bring her children to the house, where they shared many fond memories on a swing bench outside

• Almost 10 years later Monaghan, 38, was on a weekend getaway near where her dad had lived when she and her husband decided to stop by the house. Upon arriving, she saw the swing bench still there

• Her husband convinced her to leave a note asking to buy it, and a couple of hours later she heard back

A few years before Erica Monaghan's dad, Rick, died from cancer at the age of 59, he bought a house in Prescott, Ariz., a couple of hours from where Monaghan lived with her kids.

On weekends, the single mom would bring her children to the house, where they would spend hours running around the yard playing with her nieces and nephews. But many of her fondest memories — from her dad sitting outside listening to the birds and feeding the hummingbirds, to watching her kids grow up over the years — were made on a swing bench outside the house.

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Almost 10 years later and now married, Monaghan, 38, was on a weekend getaway near where her dad had lived when she decided to stop by the house — something she hadn’t done since he died or since he had lived there. The minute the car turned the corner, a flood of emotions hit.

"When I saw that they still had the swing, it flashed me back to my kids on that swing, me on that swing, my nieces and nephews on that swing, my mom and dad on that swing — everything," Monaghan tells PEOPLE exclusively. "It really brought back a lot of memories. I was telling my husband about it, just watching it, and I was like, 'I can't believe they still have that swing. That is so cool.' I didn’t think anything of it at the time."

"Then my husband pulled into the driveway and got out, and I was like, 'What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm so uncomfortable right now,' " she continues. "He went to the door and was ringing the bell over and over, but they weren't answering. I didn’t know what he was doing. So I came back and he’s like, 'Damn, I was going to ask if we could buy that bench from them.' "

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Upon hearing this, Monaghan turned to her husband and thanked him for his sweet gesture. "I was like, 'That’s so kind, but it’s okay, let’s go,' " she recalls. "And he’s like, 'No, write a note. Do something. We have to get that bench.' "

So, she followed through and wrote a note for the new owners and left it on their door. A few hours later, she got a call.

"He thought I was trying to buy his house," she laughs. "But after having that full conversation, I told him I’m not trying to buy your house, I’m just talking about the bench. And he’s like, 'Oh, yeah, it means so much more to you than to us. Just replace the bench and you can have it.' "

"So we were going to go to Home Depot and buy him a new bench," she continues. "But he texted me and said, 'There’s a bench we found for 200 bucks. If you want to buy a new bench, just come and get that.' So my husband brought us back, and we got the bench."

Throughout this entire experience, Monaghan recorded every moment and later posted it on TikTok. She wanted to share it as a special moment to look back on, but then the video went viral, amassing more than 640,000 views and 530 comments.

"Before I posted the video, I sent it to my kids, and just their responses were priceless," she adds. "My daughter, who was very close to my dad, was especially emotional. I was a single teenage mom, so for her, my dad was like the father figure in her life. She grew up without a dad, so this made it even more special to her. She was like, 'Oh my God!' It brought back all her memories."

"I saw a lot of negative comments, like, 'I can't believe he made you pay for it,' but I just want to clarify that he didn’t make me do anything," she explains. "We were very much like, 'Hey, we would love to replace it, so you have a bench and can make memories on it for your kids. That way, they’ll have something to look back on in the future — something like the bench where everybody sat.' "

"It's crazy how something so simple could mean so much to somebody," she adds. "I had so many comments. I had so many stories in there of similar things, and I just thought it was so beautiful."

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Monaghan adds that she’s very detached from material possessions, noting how owning a lot of things isn’t part of her character. When her dad died, she was 29 years old and didn’t ask for anything except a clay head that he had made when he was in high school.

"If you went into my house, you'd be like, 'Did you just move in?' I just don’t have things," she jokes. "But the bench is different. It holds so many memories. I didn’t care about anything. There was nothing. Even if I had a shirt, I’d be like, 'Oh yeah, I remember when my dad wore that shirt.' But to have the memories ... because it holds them. There were so many memories just on that bench."

Recently, Monaghan's husband installed the bench on the back porch of their new house. "It’s going to be in our family’s gathering place," she shares proudly.

Read the original article on People