Keep the tissues handy! Richard Johnson, a 21-year-old single dad, wrote a touching Facebook post on Tuesday, Nov. 10, about his experience raising his baby daughter, and his story has since gone viral.
“My name is Richard Johnson, and I’m a single father to a beautiful little girl named Persephone,” he shared in a Facebook group called Life of Dad. “Her mother left about a month after she was born. We still don’t know exactly why, but we suspect postpartum depression played a part.”
Johnson, who also shared a snapshot of himself with his adorable 10-month-old daughter, added that he was “so nervous and scared” to embark on the single-parenting journey.
“I wasn’t sure I could do it,” he admitted. “I had read every ‘new parent’ book I could find and clocked in over 1000 hours in YouTube videos from everything to braiding hair and painting nails to theories on how to deal with common parental issues.”
The dad added that being a part of the Life of Dad community helped him to feel less alone, and to see that “there were other fathers out there who were in similar predicaments as me.”
“You truly helped my daughter and me through a very difficult time,” he wrote, thanking the online community. “We’re both very happy now and continue to grow together everyday. She’s now 10 months, and now I get asked by my friends for parenting advice constantly. We’ve come a long way, my daughter and me, and we definitely owe part of that to this page and the people within it.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 11, the proud dad took to Facebook once more to express his gratitude for the outpouring of love and attention his post had garnered.
“I honestly don’t know what to say,” he wrote. “I’ve been reading everyone’s comments and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t become a tad bit emotional. As I sit here now writing to all of you, my heart wants to jump out of my chest and tears want to will their way to the surface.”
As of Friday, Nov. 13, Johnson’s post had more than 30,000 likes and nearly 2,000 shares.
