Dad still has the diorama his daughter made 23 years ago and the internet is in awe

There’s something special about the messy cards, broken, misshaped, out-of-the-world gifts kids make for people when young. Though the gifts may be nowhere near perfection, the one thing guaranteed is that they come straight from their heart out of love. u/Ayen_C shared a picture of a similar gift she had made for her dad as a child. Like most parents, this dad too was overwhelmed by the gesture and as naive, messy and weird as the gift looked, the fact that it was handmade by his child was enough for him to hold on to as much as any other invaluable possession.

The post mentioned that the dad was a pilot and planes were naturally his thing. “My dad is a private pilot. I’m visiting them in my hometown right now, and my dad showed me this diorama I made 23 years ago of his airplane when I was 10 years old. He still has it I guess!” the post’s caption read. Along with the caption, there were images of an adorably handmade diorama of a plane and a few other elements that were put together in a tissue box. There were mismatched clouds, scanty grass that looked nothing like the grass and the heroic plane with “Papa” written on it. As raw and untidy as it seemed, it was everything to the dad, considering he had it with him for 23 long years. The side of the box had the date in the kid’s handwriting, which read, “05/20/01.”

People were filled with awe and commented on the dad’s gesture. With over 3.7k upvotes, many people were stressing that the dad undoubtedly had immense love for his child to have preserved the diorama intact for a long time. u/TYdays said, “When you receive a gift that is special, you hold on to it, your Dad did.” Many fellow parents related to the dad’s gesture of retaining the special gift. u/pawpaw69420 said, “I keep everything my daughter makes me. One day, she’ll stop giving me stuff and I want as much as I can get.” u/saint-aryll said, “This is sweet. It looks delicate too and the fact that it’s in such good condition for its age shows you how much he cherished it. Give that man a big old hug!”

Several people even shared their stories. u/robo-dragon said, “That’s adorable! My dad still has some of the things I made him, including a handmade birthday card I made when I was three. You can barely read it, but the scribbles and kiddy drawings of me with my dad still meant enough to him to keep it in his office for nearly thirty years now.” u/Aggressive-Ground-32 said, “My daughter made me a container with a monkey head on it when she was in preschool, she turns 20 in a month. I still have it on display in my home. I call it my monkey bucket.” u/puppersnme said, “This reminds me of my own dad, who was a kind, sentimental man devoted to his family. Going through his things after he died was one surprise after another.”