A grieving young daughter received a text message after texting her dead father's old phone number and shared the sweet news on social media.
Chastity Patterson, now 27, lost her father Jason Ligons eight years ago and since his death, she would send his old number daily texts in order to keep him updated.
However, on the day before the fourth anniversary of his death, she was astonished to see a response from her late dad's number - but was actually a man named Brad who had also suffered a major loss in his life.
The text, which was screenshotted and posted to Facebook, read: "Hi sweetheart, I am not your father, but I have been getting all your messages for the past four years. I look forward to your morning messages and your nightly updates. My name is Brad and I lost my daughter in a car wreck August 2014 and your messages kept me alive."
He continued: "When you text me, I know it’s a message from God. I’m sorry you lost someone so close to you, but I have listened to you over the years and I have watched you grow and go through more than anyone. I have wanted to text you back for years, but I didn’t want to break your heart.
"You are an extraordinary woman and I wish my daughter would have become the woman you are, thank you for your everyday updates, you remind me that there is a God and it wasn’t his fault that my little girl is gone," he added.
The post immediately went viral, garnering lots of love from strangers online. However, as revealed by Chastity herself, not everyone was kind about the sweet text exchange.
The 23-year-old later took to Facebook to thank everyone who liked and shared her original post, writing: "I would like to thank everyone for the kind words and sharing my story, I never would have imagined the response it has gotten. I didn't share to gain anything, I just wanted my friends and family to know that I was okay and this year wasn't going to be hard for me."
She then opened up about how cruel the world could really be.
"NOW I have learned that everything isn't for the world to know and there are some cruel people in the world, but to everyone that has messaged me images, letters and their kind words, I can say that everything is okay and there is nothing wrong with grieving how I did. Thank you," she added, alongside a red heart.
We're so happy that both Chastity and Brad got fulfillment out of their interactions with each other and we hope they both manage to heal from the pain of their losses over time.
