Woman finds adorable letter dad wrote before his death encouraging her to try beekeeping

A woman shared an adorable handwritten note her dad wrote before he died, encouraging his children to take up beekeeping. Amy Clukey said the family found the note in her dad's beekeeping equipment almost a decade after he passed away in 2012. Rick Clukey was passionate about beekeeping and hoped to see one of his six children take it up as well. It was an emotional moment for the Clukey family to see the note from him meant for his kids. He wrote the note on June 27, 2012, when he was battling terminal cancer. "My father wrote this when he had terminal lung cancer. It was incredibly hard for him and for all of us who loved him," she recalled. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 53 from lung cancer.

Amy Clukey shared an image of the note found by her brother and wrote, "Note from my dad found in his beekeeping equipment nine years after his death. He is missed." The letter, written in pencil, on branded paper from a hardware company reads: "I hope this note is found by one of my children who is curious about beekeeping." It was found by his youngest son, Liam, who then shared it with the family. Rick was hoping to pass on his passion for beekeeping to his children. "Beekeeping is actually pretty easy and you can learn everything you need to know online," he wrote before listing the pros of the hobby. "Bees make more products than just honey and as a hobby it can be a source of extra income." He concluded, "Don't be afraid, have courage. Good luck. Love Dad." Amy confirmed that her sister Emily had plans to pursue beekeeping.

The tweet went viral, garnering more than 760,000 likes and was shared 43,000 times. Rick's message urging his children to pursue beekeeping is also an important one as far as the future of the planet is concerned. "Colony collapse disorder" is a worrying phenomenon that has been on the rise in the past 50 years, causing the decline of the bee population by a catastrophic 44% in America between 2015 and 2016 alone, reported Epoch Times. "Bees may be small but they are extremely hard-working creatures and if that tiny two percent is lost, 80 percent of our food from crop cultivation will also disappear," said Livekindly CEO Jodi Monelle.

People just couldn't get enough of the letter and were incredibly happy for the family for finding his handwritten note long after he had gone. Some shared similar personal stories as well. One person shared that their father had left them a detailed note planning their yard for them. "My dad (passed in 2014) loved gardening, and after I bought my first place, which had a tiny yard, he created a plan for me, including cutouts of what each plant looks like. I will keep it forever," they wrote, sharing a picture of the plan as well. Amy responded, "That's amazing. I bought a house during covid and I keep wishing my father was here to do renovations with me. Or rather, to complete 80% of renovations and then leave them unfinished, the way he always did when I was a kid." 

Amy revealed she had tried her hand at beekeeping as she responded to a query if bees could recognize their keepers. "I planted a pollinator garden and while researching how to set one up I read that bees learn the faces of humans who work around them in the garden and therefore aren't aggressive. So I don't know if they like beekeepers, but they knew his face," she wrote.