On Father’s Day 2016, Dan and Maxi Cortez, with their two one-year-old daughters Harper and Harlow, were taking some downtime and spending some time together when they discovered that their meal was paid for by an anonymous family sitting close by. The receipt came with a note, which read- Enjoy your babies, they don’t stay little long. From the family across from you, God bless you.
The gesture would have been a stunning and beautiful surprise for anyone that received it, but for Dan and Maxi, the moment really hit them hard as they had suffered a loss of their son (their children are triplets) a year before, and the note brought back memories to the young couple.
On May 27, 2015, Landon, Harper, and Harlow were delivered via C-section to Dan and Maxi, who had conceived their triplets via IVF. The three babies were healthy at the time, but roughly two weeks later, Landon began showing strange symptoms and became diagnosed with Citrobacter koseri bacterial meningitis. He sadly passed away at seven weeks, and the family was spending their first Father’s Day without their fifth family member.
Maxi explained on Facebook the full details of the story:
“To the family in Red Lobster who sat across from us today. You never ask a question we never spoke a word. Yet you did something for us that we will never forget. When the waitress handed us your note the tears began to fall. To you we looked like just a family of 4 celebrating the most important man in our lives. Little did you know last year we celebrated as a family of 5.
You see this past year we lost one of our triplets! The holidays are always the hardest. Without knowing any of this you paid for our meal. You might never know our story or the impact of something so little could effect our lives. I’m writing you to thank you from the bottom of our hearts! I hope this post reaches you, so one day you might know that what might seemed like a small gesture of kindness to you, made celebrating my wonderful husband just a little bit easier this year!
Please share so maybe they can see this!!”
The tough day the family was sharing was brightened unexpectedly by the family sitting across from them. While they still have not been identified, these angels managed to help a young family in ways they never knew. The note is right- their children will not be babies forever, but they’ll all certainly remember this moment forever with Landon in their hearts.
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