Four-year old Paige didn't want to say goodbye to her daddy before he was shipped off to Iraq.
A family photo that shows a little girl beside her father and his fellow soldiers in uniform as they prepare to go to war has resonated well beyond the tight knit Bennethum clan.
Four-year-old Paige Bennethum really, really didn't want her daddy to go to Iraq.
So much so, that when Army Reservist Staff Sgt. Brett Bennethum lined up in formation at his deployment this july, she couldn't let go.
No one had the heart to pull her away.
The commanding officer allowed Paige to say goodbye as her dad prepared to ship off from Fort Dix.
Paige's mom Abby captured the moment on her camera and her aunt passed the image along to a Berks County, Pa. newspaper.
"I've had stranger's looking me up online, sending me messages that they are touched by it... offering alot of support," Abby Bennethum told NBCPhiladelphia.
The picture took on a life of its own online this week. Abby say's that suddenly, people were knocking on her door. "Literlly overnight, there's all these people that just want to do anything they can," she says. Though she says her husband hasn't seen any stories about his family yet, he expects to.
For her part, Paige still remembers how she felt that day in July. Looking at that picture of herself- her dad now overseas- Paige remembers, "I didn't want to let go of him."
She calls the work he does transporting supplies across the Iraqi border, "just nice."
But that doens't change her feelings.
"I just miss my daddy right now," she says.
Sgt. Bennethum, 30, is expected home next July. Until then, Paige plans to help her mom take care of her little sister and a new baby that's on the way.
1 comment:
haha i posted this on my facebook with the same title, :-)
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