An 8-year-old girl’s heartfelt letter to Santa is giving a glimpse into how the COVID-19 epidemic is affecting children around the world.
“Dear Santa,” wrote Kourtney Wood, who lives in the UK, “All I would like for Christmas is for the world to go back to normal! I don’t know if you can do that but if you can’t do that it is OK. I don’t mind if I have nothing, I do have everything, well, I do have everything I need. Thank you.”
Kourtney’s mom, Samantha Dicken, discovered the letter while she was cleaning her daughter’s bedroom last month.
“I was absolutely gobsmacked,” Dickens, 34, told TODAY Parents. “I knew she’d been struggling with lockdown and COVID. But it really hit me when I saw it on paper.”
Dicken, a medical assistant, noted that in previous years Kourtney has asked for tablets, slime toys and craft kits.
“Now she just wants her old life,” Dicken explained. “It was just heartbreaking.”
After Dicken shared Kourtney’s note on the “Family Lockdown Tips & Ideas” Facebook page, the post went viral with more than 15,000 likes.
“This made me cry! I'm so glad my little boy is still a baby and doesn’t understand. These poor children are suffering so much,” wrote one person.
Added another, “Beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.”
Dicken has been reading the messages to her daughter.
“Kourtney now knows that lots of people feel the same way she does,” Dicken revealed. “She’s sleeping well again and doesn’t need the light on anymore. She lets us shut her bedroom door. It’s given her a needed boost."
And that is a gift itself.
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