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By Rachael O'Connor
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A man grieving the loss of his father just weeks ago decided to go through his office items, only to find he had kept a childhood drawing from 25 years earlier.
Alexander Garrison lost his father, Timothy Scott Garrison, on January 18, less than a year after he was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer.
"I was there when he took his last breath. He had such an impact on the people around him that the hospital actually told us there were too many visitors in his room, and some had to leave," he told Newsweek.
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Timothy was a master plumber, with Garrison explaining that the impact he had on the people he met through the years was clear even at the funeral home, where he had previously worked. "The funeral director even remembered him and asked us to bring his work boots so he could be buried with them," he said.
Calling his father "the greatest human being in the world," Garrison was recently going through his things when he found items from his office, the place he had worked for 25 years. And in that pile of items was a drawing Garrison had done decades earlier, while he and his brothers were with their father at a "take your son to work day" event.
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Garrison shared the drawing, which appeared to be a green monster, to Reddit's r/MadeMeSmile sub on February 14 through his account u/Howtobe_normal, writing: "My dad died a few weeks ago.
"I went [through] the items he kept with his work desk, and found this. This is a drawing I made when I was 7 years old, during "Take your son to work day." He kept it in his desk for 25 years."
Garrison told Newsweek he remembered doing the drawing, which he is "pretty sure was meant to be [from] an arcade game."
"When my dad would take us to work, we usually played computer games or brought a PlayStation. If it wasn't my turn on the PS2, I'd find other ways to stay entertained," he explained. "My dad always had highlighters around, so I'd use those to doodle."
Garrison himself didn't think twice about the drawing, but said the next time he was at his dad's office, he saw the artwork pinned to the corkboard and realized his dad had kept it.
"I remember being surprised, but I didn't dwell on it. When I found it again while going through his things, the memory hit me so hard — I just burst into tears."
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Reddit users flooded Garrison's post with love and support, awarding it over 54,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments, one writing: "So sorry for your loss. What a great find and a great reminder how much he cared about you."
"Some of my dad's coworkers came to his funeral," another shared. "They all immediately knew who I was. Turns out he had a picture of me as his computer's wallpaper for years. I'm sorry for your loss, I know how much you're hurting."
One told Garrison: "As a dad I can tell you every single time he came across this drawing it put a smile on his face," and another agreed: "You were so loved. Keep that in your heart."
Garrison told Newsweek he was "honestly surprised by the response" to his post, but "reading the stories people shared about their parents or how they had kept their kids' drawings really touched my heart."
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