Grieving Daughter Finds Note In Fossil Purse While Thrifting
Unexpected Thrift Store Find
Photo of a little girl with her father and a black purse.
TikTok/Abrielle Clausing
On January 13, 2021, Abrielle Clausing's world fell apart. Her father unexpectedly passed away from Covid-19. As anyone who has experienced grief knows, the journey isn't a straight one. It ebbs and flows with some days being significantly harder than others.
It was during a "particularly hard grief week" when Abrielle, 24, decided to embark on some retail therapy. She used to love thrifting with her dad, and no one loved a good deal more than he did.
However, she didn't just want to shop for the sake of shopping, she had a very specific item she wanted in mind.
"My sister and I decided to go thrifting and I told her I wanted to find a vintage Fossil brand purse," she explains in a now-viral TikTok video.
And wouldn't you know, Abrielle did indeed end up finding "the cutest vintage Fossil brand purse" - seriously what are the chances?
And as if that wasn't serendipitous enough, it was about to get a whole lot more remarkable.
Inside the purse was a handwritten note:
"When you read this you will be far from me in miles but not in my heart. I'm here. I love you."
Whelp.
She immediately took it as a sign from her beloved dad.
"I knew it was from him," she told People. "I always check the inside of the bag before I buy it to make sure it’s in good condition. When I stuck my hand in it, I felt the piece of paper and when I took it out and found the note, I read it out loud to my sister."
"When I saw the note, it just confirmed that he was with us," she added. "He’s always with us."
Response To The Viral TikTok
TikTok · abrielleclausingAbrielle's heartwarming video has garnered nearly one million views and over 1,000 comments and it's making believers out of every single one of us.
"I'm so afraid that death is final and we just stop existing. But some things can't be explained. There has to be more out there!!"
"This was def him 🥹💙"
"I’m literally crying so hard. Someone would have had to carry me out of the thrift 😭"
"I'm honestly at a loss for words. Wow. Just wow."
Even Fossil weighed in, writing, "What a beautiful note to find. Your dad's love will always be with you. Sending you and your family a big, warm hug."
Her TikTok also opened the floodgates for others to share the signs they've received from lost loved ones.
"My brother passed away & years later I was at a checkout line in the store & at the cash register was a young school photo of him that someone left.... never made sense but I'll never forget it."
"About 30 seconds after bursting in tears thinking about my grandpa a car merged in front of me and the license plate was his name and his age when he died 😭😭"
"When my mom passed, days after I found an email that not me nor my sister had opened or read before. It was an email my mom sent us 4 years before with the message “open it when I’m gone, love, mom”. It had a beautiful letter as an attachment."
Love Lives On
The note Abrielle Clausing found in a Fossil bag while thrifting is now part of a cherished collage.
People.com/Abrielle Clausing
Abrielle has given the note a place of honor, right smack in the middle of a framed collage of her favorite sayings and things.
It's a beautiful reminder that the love she shared with her dad lives on, even though he is gone.
And whether you believe in fate or not, you have to admit the universe had an uncanny way of showing up just when she needed it to.
After all, what are the odds that a stranger penned a note with the exact words she needed to hear, placed it in the exact bag she was looking for, AND that bag ended up in the exact thrift store she was shopping in? Pretty astronomical.
And yet, here we are.
Life is full of unexpected, magical moments that often happen when we least expect it. And sometimes those moments bring us the comfort and connection we need most, reminding us that love...is never truly lost.
Leave 'Normal' Behind, Because You Were Meant for More
You still have it. Deep down. Inside you. Somewhere. It’s the dream of who you want to become, and what you want to do with your life.
And yet, that dream seems so wild and unrealistic that you need to let go of it to pursue 'normal' things, like 'normal' people do. Like money. Money buys everything, including happiness, doesn't it? Well then how come you still feel something tickling you inside? Aren’t you happy with all the money you have?
When you realize 'normal' is not what you want
People have been telling you how to live your life. They tell you what to do and which highly respected career path you should pursue. They tell you to never stop climbing higher in your career, to earn that bonus, to get that promotion. They draw a picture of happiness and tell you to try to make that picture come true.
They promise you that once you make a lot of money, then you'll be able to settle down and be happy. Like a 'normal' person.
But what if that is not true?
What if you don’t want to settle down? What if you don’t like the career they have chosen for you? What if you work so hard to get more money, only in an effort to fill the emptiness inside you? What happens if one day, the money cannot fill that hole?
That’s when you realize what they have taught you is not what you want. You don’t want to just be "okay" with a job you don’t enjoy. You don’t want to be miserable working for 30 years and then call it a life.
You don’t need to be like everyone else. You don’t have to be 'normal.'
The fear of going the other way
We are social creatures. We like the feeling of belonging. We don’t want people to judge us. We like playing it safe.
We also inherently want to be successful, to stand out and do something extraordinary. Yet the fear of failure, the fear of being different, can outweigh our desires.
What if we go left when everyone else goes right, and then it turns out we are wrong? What if we try so hard and then we fail? How can we be sure that it will all be worth our effort?
READ: Embrace Failure to Learn the Things Success Won't Teach
We let that fear get the best of us. We use fear as an excuse for not trying. But, what’s the worst that can happen? You get more experience, you learn more, you live more. If you fail, you will learn how to get back up. If you win, you get the life you want.
If you want to do something extraordinary, you need to be willing to do something that no one else is willing to do.
Let your dreams show you the way
Once you overcome your fear, you will face another problem. You don’t know how to start.
We live in a world where too many people tell you how to achieve your dreams, and yet you still don’t know what to do. Because the truth is they don't know you better than yourself. They don’t know your obstacles, your strengths, your weaknesses. They don’t know what you are afraid of, or what you are proud of.
So why listen to them?
You don’t need to read all the self-development books in the world to know what to do. You just need to let your dreams show you the right path.
READ: How to Follow Your Heart and Live Your Personal Legend
What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to achieve? What is it that really makes you happy and that you won’t regret when you're on your deathbed?
Close your eyes, and imagine that all of your dreams have come true. What will your future self tell your current self?
For the first time in your life, walk the way your gut tells you, and follow the path your heart shows you.
Your new life awaits
It’s never too late or too soon to start something new. You will never go wrong if you follow your heart. There will be some sacrifice, some sufferings, some stress, some fear. But that is unavoidable. And that is okay.
Indeed, those are the natural signals the universe is sending you that you are about to step into something extraordinary -- something that will lead you to a life worth talking about.
Your new life awaits. All you need is to start.
It’s your turn.