HOLLISTER, CA (KSBW/CNN) – For the three years since her father died, an 11-year-old girl has coped with the loss by sending him letters that she attaches to balloons – and this year, she received a special response.
Emily Hinchberger’s father died when she was just 8 years old. Now 11, the girl and her mother, Rebecca Crawford, keep his memory alive with pictures and stories.
"He is a big goofball. He loves animals, and he’s really funny with the ways he loves them,” Emily said.
Every year, Emily writes her dad a letter to let him know how she’s doing. She then ties them to balloons, which lift the letters into the air and to “heaven.”
"She loved the idea of being able to communicate with her dad,” Crawford said.
Her latest letter read, "Dear Daddy, I miss you so much. Guess what, I got all A's in 6th grade and 1B in P.E. I wish you were here to see how I was doing. I love you, talk to you next year. Love, Emily."
"At first, it was really emotional, but now, it's a lot more fun because I knew that it would somehow get to him and that he was looking out for me,” Emily said.
Little did the 11-year-old know, those balloons would end up more than 100 miles away with Veronica Manzo in Bakersfield, CA.
"My heart just dropped when I read that letter. I just couldn't imagine my child going through such a loss,” Manzo said.
Through social media, Manzo was able to connect with Crawford and offer to pay for private horse riding lessons for Emily, an activity her father loved and grew up doing.
"I was thinking with the wind that maybe he did that or maybe he pushed it in the direction to Bakersfield, so it's really cool to know that he is up there looking out for me,” Emily said.
Crawford says Emily will be taking riding lessons from her father’s high school girlfriend.
“[It] will be very cool for her because I think she'll learn a lot of different stories and things about Joe from when he was younger as she goes into that age, which will be really nice,” Crawford said.
Emily says she believes this was meant to be and that it’s taught her a lesson about life.
"Even when you lose a loved one, there are more people around you who care, and they will help you get through it,” she said.
Copyright 2018 KSBW, Family photos via CNN. All rights reserved.
