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.
Be a Rainbow in Somebody Else's Cloud
Most of Maya Angelou's life's work was rooted in her love for others. To millions she was (and is) a precious orb of light in an otherwise dark room. An influence to the likes of Barack Obama, Alicia Keys and Tupac Shakur, one of her firmest intentions was to always be "a rainbow in somebody else's cloud."
Be a Rainbow in Somebody Else's Cloud
How do we be a rainbow in someone else's cloud? We offer ourselves to them. Our whole selves. We realize that we were put here for a greater purpose than to just serve ourselves. That we were put here to also be of service to others. To extend nourishment as much as we hoard it.
Have you ever been financially broke -- and yet, almost by magic, somebody was there to lend you money? Or instead experienced the death of a loved one -- while one person stayed with you patiently through your grief? These people were your rainbows.
And if you haven't had an experience like this, then that is all the more reason to give someone what you wish someone would have given you in a time of crisis.
Angelou's rainbow, and how she found her voice
During her five years of muteness as a child, one of Maya Angelou's rainbows was her grandmother. "You're going to be a teacher," she told Angelou. "Sister, you're going to teach all over this world." Maya thought in her head at the time, "This poor, ignorant woman – doesn't she know I will never speak?"
Yet, in her lifetime, Maya Angelou indeed did lecture at leading educational institutions around the world; her grandmother was right.
When we have no belief left in ourselves, sometimes we need somebody else to provide that belief.
Sometimes we need a rainbow in a cloud of our own.
Fill your own cup, that it may overflow
And it's easy to confuse being a rainbow in someone else's cloud with being a people-pleaser. But the difference between the two is that the latter demands too much of you, while the former demands just enough. People-pleasers expend themselves by giving away food even when they are still hungry themselves. If you are being a rainbow, however, you aren't doing so at the expense of yourself.
Rainbows don't replace clouds; they simply shine through a fraction of them to say "I'm here."
Regarding the Bible quotation, "My cup runneth over," Iyanla Vanzant said that in order to keep your cup full when giving to others, you have to make it clear that "What comes out of the cup is for y'all; what's in the cup is mine." It's the idea that when your cup is so full it's overflowing, you can give the excess to others guilt-free because you already have enough.
The many faces of giving
Just because you are not expending all of your energy to get rid of the cloud or stop the rain or drag the sun out, that does not mean you are not doing enough for the person involved. Sometimes all we humans require is an attentive listener, a positive quote to read, or a cup of coffee made by another hand. These small gestures are enough.
Remember that you were put here to be your best self for a purpose bigger than yourself. Sometimes we forget this duty. We treat it like a burden. Stop treating it like one. Find someone in your life who you know to be struggling and, without expecting anything in return, be a rainbow in their cloud.
Only you know how.
In the words of Thic Nhat Hanh: "The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers."