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A woman has found a sympathy card she wrote for one of her teachers back when she was seven years old.
Lindsay Schraad Keeling deemed the card to be one of her “mortifying childhood stories” and took to TikTok to show off exactly what the card said to her viewers. “When you create your first sympathy card as a 7-year-old,” text across the screen read as Keeling showed a photo of herself as a child.
Keeling revealed in an interview with Today that she wrote the card after being told that her computer teacher’s mother had passed away. “We had a substitute teacher that day and we were told by the principal that our regular teacher’s mother had passed away,” she told the outlet.
“He did not assign us to color any pictures or make anything for our teacher, but apparently I decided to do so anyway.”
Her card appeared more like a booklet with the front indicating that it was from Lindsay and to “computer teacher” with the words “Sory teacher” written on the front page alongside a drawing of a desktop.
Inside the card the message read: “I am so sory computer teacher that your mom had to die sory. But evry body hast to die some day and today it was your moms turn to die. Love love is in your hart.”
Throughout the card there were various drawings including another desktop, a crying face, and hearts with Keeling joking in the on-screen text: “Should Hallmark hire me?”
Her video went on to receive over three million views with many in the comments section mentioning how funny they found the card.
“We need some scary music behind this card…” one person joked in the comments.
“‘And today it was your moms turn to die’ is INSANE LOL,” another commenter said.
“My favorite part is that her name is just computer teacher,” a third commenter pointed out.
One commenter even wrote about a sympathy card she wrote as a child that probably should have been looked at more closely.
“My class had to make cards for a girl who fell off the swing set and had broken her arm. In my card I drew a swing set with a heart around it and said ‘don’t blame the swings it was your fault sorry,’” they wrote.
Keeling admitted that she was an “emotional child” growing up and said her pet bird had recently died, which led to her mother giving her a children’s book that explained the concept of loss.
“I guess I put my newfound knowledge to use and wrote a very factual ‘sympathy card,’” she told Today, adding that she grew up to become both a funeral director and author. “I’m sure I was very proud of it, because I excitedly showed it to my mother – who was wise enough to gently take it from me so I couldn’t give it to my teacher.”
At the time she never questioned why her mother never allowed her to take the card to school. “She didn’t want to lie to me but she also didn’t want to upset me, so she just said, ‘Oh, that’s very nice and I’m sure she’ll like it, but let’s keep it here for now,’” Keeling said.
“That must’ve been a good enough answer for me, because I never asked about it again.”
