Sick dad wrote his teen daughter a 12-word whiteboard note before slipping into a coma — and asked her to keep it secret from her mom
Small keepsakes can carry the heaviest memories. TikTok user and Florida resident Gabbi Fernandez (@eeeroda) was 17 when her father, Terry Donohue, lost his battle with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, breathing his last on July 11, 2016. However, before his untimely death, her father had penned a note, which she decided to revisit as the 10th anniversary of his passing approached. Sharing the note on January 28, 2026, on TikTok with the post captioned, "Love you 3000," Fernandez revealed that her father never wanted her mother to know what he wrote in his letter, as reported by Newsweek on Saturday, February 7, 2026.
Fernandez was 17 when her father, Terry Donohue, passed away, leaving her behind a note that she still cherishes. Her father returned home from dinner when he began having difficulty breathing. After he was taken to the hospital, the doctors discovered that he had Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). He battled for a month in the ICU, with the doctors doing everything in their power to help him recover. The night before he was going to be put in a coma was the last time Fernandez saw him fully conscious. He did not want his daughter to see him in the condition he was in. As a result, she was sent to New York to stay with her relatives. Since Terry was intubated through his throat, he was unable to speak and relied on a whiteboard to converse.
However, he wanted his daughter to know what was in his heart, so he penned her a note with all the strength he had left. The heartbreaking 12-word note read, "Seeing you was the best thing in the world, don't tell mom." Despite being placed in a coma, his organs began to fail, and he succumbed to the illness soon. Losing her dad two weeks before she started her senior year of high school was devastating. The note he left behind remained a secret known only to Fernandez and her uncle. On the 10th death anniversary of her beloved father, she decided to share it with TikTok users to reflect on her journey with grief. "Looking back on it now, it makes me feel cherished and loved. It’s something I understood when I was younger, obviously, but it’s different now that I have a child of my own," Fernandez told the outlet.
Fernandez, who is a mother herself, has gained a new perspective reading it now and is more open to talking about her grief with others. Her post gained huge popularity on TikTok, prompting many users to share their own responses. @destinee noted, "'Don't tell mom' means she's the next best thing because he immediately thought of her after." @bingo expressed, "How are you ever going to get over this because I'm literally just a stranger and I burst out crying so hard." @wizwaltz recounted, "My name was the last word my dad ever spoke."
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