Woman’s dad passed away—months later, a small detail on her coffee table changed her life
Grief pushes us to yearn for even the smallest touch or the faintest feeling of the presence of our deceased loved ones. A woman named Delayna Stover (@deylanastover) had been dreading the loss of her dad, Rodney Battles, after she lost him to cancer, per Newsweek. Still trying to accept his cancer diagnosis and the fact that he was no longer with them, she was shattered with grief. Yearning for a sign of comfort, the woman came across a coffee table her dad had made years ago. One observation about it gave her a bittersweet relief.
Stover recalled how close she and her siblings were to her dad. The man lived a block away from her house and was tight-knit with him. She was delighted to become a mom in January but things quickly took a heartbreaking turn. The next month, her dad received a diagnosis of cancer and it was too late for them to do anything. Within a few weeks' time, her world turned upside down and she lost Battles to the illness. As the woman spent the months after trying to cope with the loss, she recalled all the priceless memories she had with her dad. She shared a few glimpses of her dad in another video and wrote, “Homesick for a place I can never go back to.”
Among the seemingly mundane memories, she remembered how her dad loved to make furniture for her. "My dad had me so spoiled he made most of the furniture in my house; anything I'd show him, he'd make," she remarked. One of these was a coffee table that Stover had wanted for a while. She recounted how her father was delighted to use his creativity and make a stunning coffee table with an American flag. It was just the way she wanted. While cleaning the table, the woman undoubtedly reminisced about her father making it with his very own hands. However, she saw something more profound as she looked closely.
There on the table was a handprint of her dad at the corner, smudged and unusual. “He had to put epoxy over the top to make it super smooth and when he did that, he accidentally fell and caught himself on the table,” Stover recalled. As a result, his print was made on the table. While he offered to redo it at the time, the woman brushed it off and said that it was fine. She had often noticed this print over the years but this time, when she caught sight of it, something pierced her heart while holding it dear. This time, it was not an accident or faulty design; it was a part of her dad, now forever etched on the table. "I am so so thankful he didn't sand it down," she said.
Call it coincidence or love, but the fact that it was her dad’s hand that smudged the table became a bittersweet comfort. It was the same hand that Stover had held all the years as she grew up. Even though he’s gone, she still has that little bit to hold onto, to feel a little close to home again. "I just stand there and stare at it for a little bit when it shines," she said. “His handprint is my favorite part of the coffee table now,” Stover remarked.
You can follow Delayna Stover (@deylanastover) on TikTok for more content on family and relationships.