When a 4-year-old girl from Bristol, Connecticut, lost the pet that she'd spent the first four years of her life loving, she was absolutely heartbroken. But thanks to the kindhearted mail carriers in her hometown, she was able to get a very special message from dog Kendal all the way up in Heaven.
Four-year-old Maci and the family’s dog, a 13-year-old pooch named Kendal, were inseparable from the start.
Kendal started to suffer from health issues in her old age, though, and eventually passed away. It left Maci heartbroken, but the resilient little girl was quick to ask her mother if she couldn’t possibly send a note to her best friend one last time. After all, who’s to say that a dog in Heaven can’t read a letter sent through the postal service?
With her mother’s help, Maci decided to write Kendal a letter. “It said, ‘I miss you Kendal,’ and it was a drawing. Like a stick figure dog,” Hopkins said.
The pair then addressed the letter to Kendal up in Heaven, and Maci hand-delivered it to the mail carrier on duty that day—a kindhearted man named Kenneth Rodin.
“I took it and I said I will take the letter and send it up to Heaven for you,” said Rodin.
Then, the next day, their regular carrier was back on duty with an incredible delivery of his own to hand to Maci.
Dave Rooks, who typically delivers the mail for the Hopkins family, showed up the next day with a blank envelope. As soon as Maci pulled out the letter inside, though, it became clear; the letter had been sent from Kendal.
“Thank you so much for my picture!!” it said. “Love you!”
The signature, a giant heart with a big paw print on the side, made it clear who the letter was from.
The letter might not have seemed like anything complicated, but the fact that the mail carriers took the time to make sure Maci’s letter got “delivered” and elicited a response was just what the young girl and her family needed after the heartbreak of losing their four-legged friend.
Her older brother, Landon, explained that the letter was exactly the kind of thing that Kendal the dog would have done—and Maci’s reaction was absolutely perfect.
“It made me feel happy,” she said, holding up her special letter with an enormous smile on her face. ”I love her.”
“She told us it says Kendal loves her, misses her and that she will always be in her heart,” added her mother.
The family was surprised that Kendal’s response was able to arrive so quickly. But for them, it was the perfect way to help their heartbroken tot regain her sunny personality.
“That day, she seemed to be a little more like her happy-go-lucky self,” her mother concluded.
