We are all very aware of how complicated, never-ending and potentially dangerous the internet can be. But what we can quickly forget is how incredibly amazing and generous the people of the internet community can be. This is one such story.
Little baby Sophia
You may have seen in the news or on Facebook a story of a father who had recently lost his newborn daughter at the tender age of just 6 weeks. Little baby Sophia had been suffering from a hepatic hemangioma in her liver and sadly, this meant Sophia had never been outside the hospital's walls. It also meant that she was unable to be free of tubes and IV lines.
Asking the Internet for help
So, to help his own and his wife's grieving, little baby Sophia's father posted a request on popular social networking site Reddit asking the community to somehow give him a picture of his little baby girl with out all of the tubes.
The response was overwhelming with both digitally altered and hand painted pictures flowing in an effort to help the grieving family. And this is very special for a couple of reasons.
The grieving father showed incredible bravery
Baby Sophia's father showed incredible bravery for publicly asking for help in the grieving process. Many of us deal with the loss of a loved one in a very private manner and this is very normal and understandable. However, for some families the grief might need to take place in a more public environment or with the assistance of kind strangers. It does not make it inappropriate just different.
The kindness of strangers
Which leads us to the second reason as to why this story was so special. The fact that strangers within the Reddit community were so willing in helping a father grieve was a beautiful thing. The people that contributed to the request had no connection to the family whatsoever yet they all took time out of their days to create paintings, pictures and sketches of his daughter. I think that is something to be celebrated.
Have you experienced the kindness of strangers? Tell us your story in the comment section below or on our Facebook page.