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.
To the Misunderstood: Look Within, and Face Your Truth with Optimism
Have you ever felt misunderstood? So much so that you feel people in your life avoid you like a contagious virus? Been there, noticed that. So if you are in this discombobulating predicament, how do you solve it? Do you blame every single one of those people, attributing their obvious aversion to you to their own shortcomings? Do you blast them with vicious slurs in order to feel better?
If you have taken the above track, how is it working for you? Did your piss-rant affect positive change or are things still status quo?
The best way to figure out why you feel left out and taken wrongly is to look within, and to face your truth with optimism.
To the Misunderstood: Look Within, and Face Your Truth with Optimism
Eyes to the sky in crisis
Over the past few years, a serious health diagnosis allowed me the opportunity for intense self-reflection. When I first learned about the condition, I seriously lost it. At first I cycled through the stages of grief, fluctuating amongst shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, depression, reflection, loneliness, acceptance, and eventually hope.
However, as time passed I regrouped and found some stability mostly remaining in acceptance and hope. Determinedly, I decided to face all aspects of my personality full on, no matter how difficult. One of the most important decisions I made was to seek my truth. However, as time went by and I told my truth, those I thought were friends drifted away until I stood alone. The silence was deafening. In this deep, unending quietness, I faced myself, and came to terms with the true me. Over time, I learned that standing alone was not a bad thing.
Release all resentments
In order to rejuvenate my life, I needed to first cleanse and clear all illusions and delusions: I needed to love myself first. Louise Hay's book, You Can Heal Your Life, helped guide me in my first steps. In the book, she talks about cancer-causing negative emotions like resentments, and gave positive affirmations to help you heal. I did not follow her guidance to the letter, but felt the truth of her words.
Always one to assert my creativity and independence, I decided to forge my own path based on her ideas. I wrote all of my resentments out on a piece of paper and symbolically burned them over my kitchen sink. As the rancid smoke and blackened paper disintegrated before my eyes, I made an oath to release them forever. I washed the remnants down the kitchen sink, cleared the room with sage and meditated to ask for clarity and peace.
Two years have passed since that moment, and I have come full circle in my healing and recovery. Burning and releasing my resentments was the best decision I ever made.
Find the courage to heal
If you are holding on to anger, grudges, jealousy, hate, or animosity, set them free. The longer you use these dark emotions as an anchor the further you drift from your light within; the longer you cling to these lower life conditions the closer you come to ill health. We are the constellation of all activity in our lives good and bad. Life is too short to spend time wedded to energy-sapping endeavors. Casting blame on others will not bring the resolutions you seek. If you see negative patterns constantly repeating themselves in your life, look in the mirror. Find the courage to reflect and connect the dots. Your environment is always a reflection of your truth.
Recharge and go forth
Today, my status quo is harmony and peace. In finding the courage to face the reality of my truth with optimism, I recharged my life. You can do the same. We all have it within us to heal ourselves if we find the courage to seek it from within. Nowadays, I no longer worry about feeling misunderstood; I no longer worry about my solitude; I no longer blame others for my shortcomings.
Face your truth with optimism and set yourself free. The process to recharge your life will be long and arduous; it will take time and patience, but every up and down will eventually bring reward.
Here are a few tips to help face your truth: