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.
Stop Settling and Start Designing Your Life with Purpose
For this article, I thought I would circle back to the beginning of my journey in my book, Success with Goals, and more specifically to the portion about designing your life with purpose. I realized when I set out to write a book about setting goals that not only are there a ton of books already out there about goal-setting, but that the concept is somewhat dry and at times even boring, because most people think they already know what it means.
The reality is that this is not correct. There are literally tens of millions, if not legitimately hundreds of millions of people who don’t really set goals. They may have some dreams. They might have written some things down. But they don’t really have a committed plan to execute and follow through to achieve their goals in life. If we reference the Pareto Principle, we could surmise that 80% of the US population doesn’t set goals, or at least make sufficient plans to achieve them (which is the single distinguishing factor between a goal and a dream). That would suggest that 80% of the 330 million people in the US either don’t set goals or don't have a specific plan to achieve them. Quick math: that’s approximately 250 million people!
Stop Settling and Start Designing Your Life with Purpose
Most of us think about things we’d like to have or do someday, or the goals that would be nice to achieve. It’s easy to take a trip to “Someday Isle” -- more appropriately called “Someday I’ll” -- and think about all the things you will do some day. You know, when all the stars are in alignment, everything is in your favor, or you have the time.
Guess what, I’m here to tell you that never happens. NEVER! I know, I too have had more trips to “Someday Isle” than I’d like to admit. Just like most of us. Even some of the most successful people we know struggle with this.
You see, the concept of designing your life with purpose means to live your life with intention. You don’t allow yourself to meander through life aimlessly, bouncing from one challenge and obstacle to the next, never quite seeming to get ahead. This describes the significant percentage of people who are frustrated with their lives, unsatisfied either with their financial, relationship, personal, or career circumstances, and who aren’t really clear about what to do about them. You see if you are living your life with purpose, you are consciously aware of what is important to you, based on your values and what truly moves you.
What moves you?
By knowing what your values are and being aware of what truly inspires you, you can make better, more informed, conscious decisions about your life and the direction you are going in. You then set goals that will lead you in this direction. This conscious approach to making decisions and preparing yourself for the challenges allows you to course-correct as necessary and make the best decisions for your ideal path in life.
This likely sounds great in theory, and many of you might be thinking, "Yeah, that’s great Eric, but [insert your excuse here]." I have lived this for as long as many of you reading this blog have been born. And I can tell you, that you can either choose to make excuses, or you can choose to design your life. If you truly want the life you claim, you will need to step up to the plate and make some changes to achieve it.
Why live a life you are unhappy with? Life is WAY TOO SHORT to live even a few years feeling miserable in circumstances that make you unhappy. Now, don’t get me wrong, life won’t be all sunshine and rainbows just because you are setting and achieving goals. You may even fail more than people living average lives. But who wants average anyway? Average is what we sell ourselves to feel more comfortable about what we don’t have. Average is generally not having what you really want and settling for what life gives you.
So what's stopping you?
The truth is you can have more -- a better job, better finances, better relationships with your parents, kids, spouse, friends, or family. How about having more time for your spiritual beliefs, traveling more, or contributing more to those in need? How about more time to create or build things, or better yet, what if if you gave more of your time teaching? We certainly could use more good teachers in this world. This is just a sampling of things we may want, but that we often trade off for something else, fully believing that we have to give up on on our true desires and accept the status quo.
The world has always favored those who strike out and go after what they want in life. These people generally live more fulfilled lives and get more of what they want, because they choose to go after it.
I’m here to tell you that you can do the same. You must take the time to first decide what that is, and then be prepared to work your butt off to get it! If you are one of those people who is tired of not having what you truly want in life then check out our coaching programs and let us help you get started on the path of designing your life with purpose.
Thanks for reading, here’s to a great second half of 2017!