A mom was brought to floods of tears when her children surprised her with a card her late husband had left with them to give to his wife on their first anniversary apart.
Karen Koutsogiannis, 60, from Swansea, Massachusetts, and husband Anthony’s wedding anniversary was always “like Christmas” for the family her daughter, Lindsey, said.
It fell on Valentine’s Day, which made for a good excuse to get the family together to cook rib eye steaks and baked stuffed shrimp.
The couple had only known each other for a few months when they fell pregnant with Lindsey, 38, but having made their marriage work, they stayed together for more than three decades before, Anthony, 57, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, in March 2022.
Having entered hospice care in February 2023, Anthony hoped to make it through to February 14 of that year – but he also asked his family to buy a card for the first anniversary he wouldn’t be there for.
After Anthony passed on February 26, 2023, Lindsey and her siblings Caitlin and Nikos kept the anniversary card and decided to start a new tradition, taking their mom out to a family friend’s restaurant the following Valentine’s Day.
Karen was extremely warmed by the gesture, but when she was given one final surprise, she was not able to hold back her emotions.
As she opened a card from her late husband, Karen immediately burst into tears as her children moved around to comfort her.
Lindsey said: “Before our food came out, we pulled out the card.
“She was confused and thought we bought a card and gave it to her in honor of my dad, because he always made Valentine’s and their anniversary a huge deal.
“Then she realized he wrote her a special note and it was his handwriting.
“The perfect last gift he could give her.
“The moment couldn’t have been better it was honestly breathtaking.
“It was extremely difficult for the three of us to watch him fill out a card, knowing he wasn’t going to be here to give it to her.
“I can’t imagine how he felt knowing he was going to die but was going to leave her this beautiful gift.
“When she opened the card and realized it was from him, it was extremely emotional because it was a year later and the grief journey, along with the one-year of his passing creeping up, hit us all like a ton of bricks.
“We would always call ourselves the OG 5 and a huge piece of us was missing, but it felt like he was there with us in that moment.”
