Dad With Cancer Writes Daughter 826 Notes to Read Throughout High School

Photo Credit: GARTH CALLAGHAN

Ever since his daughter Emma started kindergarten, Garth Callaghan has been making her a lunch to take to school every day.

“I went to lunch with her at school one day,” Callaghan, from Richmond, Va., told FoxNews.com. “I actually chose to buy lunch with her, and I thought, ‘This is really not delicious.’ So we decided as a family we were going to limit the time Emma bought lunch and make lunch as much as possible.”

When Callaghan first started putting together his daughter’s lunches, he wanted to do a little something extra for her. So each day, he would write a special note on a napkin and leave it in her lunch sack.

Initially the notes started off as sketches or easy phrases she could understand, but as she grew older, the messages slowly evolved into thoughtful quotes or words of inspiration.

“The notes took on more sophistication,” Callaghan said. “I wanted her to be more supported. I really wanted to her have a strong sense of self…. So I started to search out quotes and things that were positive. I was actually spending more time putting together her napkin than putting together her lunch.”