7-Year-Old Student’s Unconventional Sympathy Card for Teacher Goes Viral: 'Everybody Has to Die' (Exclusive)
The now 32-year-old tells PEOPLE she had recently learned about death after her pet died, prompting her to write the sympathy card in 1999
Lindsay Keeling; Author Lindsay S. Keeling/TikTok
Lindsay Keeling (left); Sympathy card for teacherLindsay Schraad Keeling never expected a sympathy card she’d written for a teacher when she was 7 years old to go viral, but that’s exactly what happened.
Last week, the now 32-year-old woman shared a TikTok of a handmade card she crafted decades ago — the clip, which currently has over 3 million views, quickly became a hit.
Lindsay Keeling
Young Lindsay KeelingKeeling tells PEOPLE it was 1999 when her principal introduced a substitute to teach her class because “our computer teacher’s mother had died.”
“He didn’t ask for any drawings or sympathy cards or anything, but when I got home I decided I wanted to do something nice for my teacher,” she says. “I had just learned about death as a child after our pet died and my mom read me a book about dying.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The Virginia resident adds that she simply wanted to “reassure” her teacher that things would be okay.
In the clip, Keeling’s card began with an introduction: “By Lindsay to computer teacher.”
Written in larger letters in the center of the cover page was “Sory teacher.” A computer was drawn underneath her condolences.
As the stapled pages went on, so did Keeling’s message.
“I am so sory computer teacher that your mom had to die,” she wrote, adding an additional “sory.”
“But evry body hasts to die some day,” the next page read, with another image of a computer. “And today it was your moms turn to die.”
“Love love is in your hart,” she concluded.
According to Keeling, her computer teacher never received the sympathy card.
“I showed my mom the letter after I wrote it, and she very politely said we should keep it at home for now. I had forgotten about it,” Keeling tells PEOPLE.
It wasn’t until the recent death of her grandfather when she traveled back home to Oklahoma to be with family and saw her mother had dug up some old belongings that she rediscovered the card.
Lindsay Keeling
Lindsay Keeling (left) with her grandfather, Joseph Edward Schraad“My wonderful Papa, Joseph Edward Schraad, passed away on July 10. I drove from Virginia to Oklahoma for his funeral. I was very upset and my mother wanted to cheer me up, so she went through a box of keepsakes she’d been keeping for 25 years and showed me the ‘sympathy card’ I’d made for my teacher,” Keeling tells PEOPLE.
Related: Mom Goes Viral Sharing a Dilemma When Her Triplets All Think They Have the Same Name (Exclusive)
“I’m so glad she didn’t let me give it to her! I thought the card was hilarious, so I snapped some pictures of it and turned it into a TikTok,” she says. “I think it brought a lot of joy to people, especially to those who, like me, lost a loved one and needed a good laugh.”
Keeling says learning about death early on shaped her future.
“I used to be a funeral director but now I’m an author,” she says.
“I lovingly blame my mother for reading me the book about death at such a young age, which started my preoccupation with it. Now I write dark stories. My debut novel, The Funeral Director’s Wife, has a lot of dark themes and is coming out [on] Sept. 3.”
For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on People.
