Amber Klein was surprised and deeply moved when she saw the letter of Brooklynn Alexander, an 11-year-old girl in Arvada. She had kept a mailbox to ensure Santa received every letter written by kids before Christmas. Every night she made sure all the letters reached Santa. While helping in reading letters to Santa, Klein came across Brooklynn’s wish which was filled with a heart full of pain.
The letter asked Santa to stop her from her ‘sadness’. Her sadness was caused by the death of her father and grandmother, who died in a house fire during the summer.
Brooklynn’s letter said “Santa, I’ve been suffering from depression and my anger issues have been bad lately. So, what I am trying to say is – I shouldn’t get presents and can you please stop my sadness,”
When the house fire tore through Brooklynn’s house, she was rescued by a neighbor. Brooklynn was kept on a ventilator. She spent more than a week in the hospital. But her father and grandmother died in that fire accident.
This brought the sad memories of Klein back. Her body was shivering when she remembered the death of her dad in the same way.
“My dad passed away in a house fire and I just immediately wanted to protect her,” Klein said.
Klein started to track Brooklynn on Facebook. Very soon she tracked her and the two families to bond.
“I told her about my dad and how he died,” Klein said. “I showed her the necklace that I wear that has my dad’s ashes in it and now Brooklynn wants the same thing.”
Brooklynn and Klein- irrespective of their huge age gap understood each other’s pain. “I feel like whether it be my dad or Brooklynn’s dad, that they brought us together,” Klein said.
Klein’s story gave Brooklynn hope that life would get better.
Brooklynn’s second letter contained the wish list of a body pillow, fluffy socks, and a paint-set with watercolors. She also appealed to the public for letters to help bring joy back into her life.
Now she gets lots of letters from many people who even don’t know her.
In Brooklynn’s words “It’s just really fun seeing letters from people that I don’t even know cause even though they don’t even know me, they care about the situation,”
