Sometimes our parents can surprise us with the most meaningful insight, heartfelt compliment or some other completely unexpected display of love. These moments might be rare to some more than others, but when they do happen, they can be profound.
A woman named Torrie just had one of those deeply impactful moments with her father, and a video telling the story of their heartwarming interaction has gone viral online.
Torrie had asked her parents who they loved more: their kids or their grandkids. Considering the well documented phenomenon of grandparents often being closer—even nicer—to their grandkids, perhaps Torrie was expecting to hear the latter. Maybe she anticipated hearing a joke about how the grandkids are less of a handful or any other number of insensitive half-jokes.
Much to her surprise, Her father gave a response that was thoughtful and comforting all at the same time.
“He said, ‘Not more, but different,’” she recalled. “‘When I look at your daughter, my grandchild, I don’t see her the way you see her, I see her as a whole person.’”
Torrie was initially confused by this statement, so her father explained how seeing her go from childhood to adulthood gave him a future glimpse of what his granddaughter would eventually be like.
@finding_torrie 😩 #innerchildhealing #parenting ♬ The Night We Met – Marianne Beaulieu
“And he said, ‘I’ve seen firsthand you go from a baby to a woman, and I’ve known all of the ‘yous’ in between,’” she continued. And so, “When he looks at my daughter, he not only sees this beautiful baby, he sees and loves everything she is and ever will be because he’s already seen it in me.”
Getting emotional, Torrie concludes: “Ask your parents questions. their answers might be really healing.” She even captioned the clip #innerchildhealing
While several viewers noted that Torrie’s experience certainly would not be the case for their own parental interactions, everyone agreed the video was touching nonetheless.
“I can confirm that it will not be healing but I love this for you and your dad must be protected at all costs,” one person wrote.
Some even made jokes about how unfathomable it was to have a parent like Torrie’s. “Where you get parents like that? Can you get that on Amazon? 😭😭❤️❤️” one person quipped.
Still, for many who didn’t have that kind of relationship with their folks, simply seeing that kind of love in action was its own kind of soul medicine.
“What’s healing for me is knowing that there are people who have truly loving parents. Please thank your dad for me 💓,” one person shared.
In a follow-up video, Torrie clarified that her relationship with her father was far from perfect. They had also spent years “working through trauma” to achieve that level of emotional intelligence and arrive at this strong connection.
But clearly, the work has paid off. In another video, Torrie shared the text exchange with her dad talking about how her video had gone viral. She told him how lucky she felt to have him as a dad and how much she valued the conversations they’ve been able to have after those years of work.
Her dad’s response? “Me too. It would be quite an accomplishment NOT to love a daughter like you to the moon and back.”
@finding_torrie Replying to @Straw🍓 ♬ Belonging – Muted
Yeah. Suddenly the world doesn’t feel like such a cold and lonely place after all. Sometimes our parents can surprise us. But even if they can’t, sometimes seeing others heal can be healing.
