Dad-daughter duo were out having breakfast—one observation made a stranger leave a tear-jerking note

When it comes to building parent-children bonds, every little practice, expression, tradition and memory matters. A dad named David Rosenman had one such practice of having breakfast with his daughter while they each did their own thing. One such encounter went slightly differently after his 9-year-old’s simple yet sincere request. There was something that changed during that breakfast that became a heartwarming visual for an observant stranger. The woman noticed Rosenman and his little girl and all they did and decided to leave a note for the dad. Her words gave him a heartwarming and eye-opening reminder.

The dad took his daughter to breakfast with a plan — she’d do her crocheting and he’d focus on his work. “This was going to be an outing not unlike others we’d had before,” he said, explaining that they’d each do their own thing whilst coexisting together. That day, the little girl came up with a different request. “Daddy, can you not read the paper or doodle or check emails today? Can we just be together?” she asked. Rosenman gladly obliged and the duo decided to catch up. The father-daughter duo interacted with each other about projects, the day she was born and a thread of heartwarming interactions.

“We compared notes about whether or not couples at other tables were on ‘dates’ (she likes to impersonate people on dates.) She told me about her friends and their hamsters,” Rosenman recalled. As he watched his little girl have her breakfast, he fell in love with her all over again. As he noticed his girl, he was met with a bitter realization. “I wished it hadn’t taken her past experience and her courage to reach out for me to give her the attention she so wanted and needed,” he said. The dad had already understood what he had to do and after a refreshing time, the duo decided to leave.

As the dad got up to finish off with the counter, when he returned, he found a note on his table. A woman had asked his daughter whether Rosenman was her dad and then left the note. He opened it to find a beautiful “reinforcement.” "I work at a school where many daughters don't have fathers and those who do have never in their lives had him watch, listen and devote 100% of his attention to her for as long as you did on one Sunday morning,” the letter read. The woman commended the dad for being an example but above all, for being a dad in the truest form.

“You have no idea what a gift you are giving to all of the teachers who are responsible for educating her from now until she graduates," the note concluded. The thoughtful letter left Rosenman contemplating how profound the duties of parenting truly are. “Please don’t wait for your child or other loved one to plead for your attention like mine did — he or she might not,” the dad shared. He noted that receiving a letter like he did is a “beauty in this world that is far too rare.” He made a priceless request to all to “choose to be present today — even for just a little while — for someone you love.”