Sandy Seibold and her 13-year-old daughter have been struggling with grief since May, when they lost Sandy’s husband and Saige’s father to pancreatic cancer. Johnny Seibold was only 43 years old when he passed away.

 

To deal with their loss, Sandy and Saige decided one afternoon to release balloons, and to write a message up to the heavens for Johnny.

 

“We thought the idea of sending balloons to heaven sounded good,” Sandy told Reporters.

 

So, they wrote a eulogy and attached it to a bunch of balloons with the phrase “#1 Dad” written on it, and added a little note asking that whoever found the balloon contact them.

 

Then they drove the long 25 miles to his gravesite and released the message to the skies.

 

The mother and daughter feared the balloons wouldn’t even take flight at first—the ribbons on the balloons became tangled on some power lines—but soon a large gust of wind picked them up and carried the balloons and the handwritten message away.

 

Sandy and Saige probably thought that was the last they’d see of the balloons, unless by chance they landed in someone’s yard. Even then, that person would have to go out of their way to contact the Seibolds.

 

The pair decided to delay going directly home, and instead ran errands for several hours.

 

When they finally returned home, they were stunned to find a familiar cluster of balloons waiting for them.

 

The wind had carried their note directly back to their home, and it sat tangled in some fencing on the edge of their property.

 

Saige says the balloons were in a part of their pasture that she and her father would often go to together.

 

“I think I started crying,” Sandy told Reporters. “It felt like a message from him.”

 

The pair say that while they are still in mourning, it’s not so hard now. They believe it was a sign from Johnny to give them peace and let them know he’s okay.