Sisters’ Christmas card to ‘daddy in heaven’ receives touching reply

A mum wept tears of joy after her daughters wrote a Christmas card to their ‘daddy in heaven’ and received responses from Santa through the post.

Stacey Oakley’s daughters, six-year-old Ava-Rose and four-year-old Aurora-Grace have posted the message every year since dad Matt Krekelaar died.

But Stacey was unaware her daughters had already posted this year’s card – telling their dad ‘I love you, Merry Christmas’ – after spending the day at their grandma’s house.

She only discovered the gesture when she received the reply through the post last week, sent from a ‘Friend of Santa’ at Bristol Mail Centre.

It included two decorated cards each for Ava Rose and Aurora-Grace.

One was addressed from ‘Dad’ and the other from Father Christmas, who had included a reminder for the girls to hang up their stockings.

Aurora-Grace’s card read: ‘My good friends at Bristol Mail Centre told me about the lovely card you sent to Daddy in Heaven.

‘So they said you might like a card from me this year.

‘I already know that you and your sister Ava Rose have been very good.

‘Love from Santa, Elves and all the reindeer x’

Matt, 28, had been due to marry Stacey before his death in a car crash near his home in Yate, Bristol, on October 1, 2018. The couple had been together for six years.

Stacey, 34, also from Yate, told The Sun she now plans to put the cards from Matt in their memory boxes.

In a post on Facebook, she explained: ‘Unbeknown to me Ava-Rose had posted a Christmas card to heaven for her daddy recently after spending the day at her granny’s.

‘It is something that is done every year but not something I knew that they had already this year. This morning we had a reply through the post.

‘Thank you Royal Mail Bristol depot for the most thoughtful touch. I must admit I cried buckets but the thought was most definitely there. Thank you so much.

‘It truly was a really kind thing to do.’

Thousands of replies poured in on Facebook from others who would been touched by the gestures.

Stacey replied: ‘This is the children’s 3rd Christmas without their dad.

‘They were two and four when he died. I never wanted the post to be about them and I really hope it came across that way.

‘I wanted it more to be about the kindness and thoughtfulness of a complete stranger and even if that person didn’t want to be found I wanted them to still realise the impact of what they did for us.’