The Heartbreaking Reason This 6-Month-Old’s Photo With Santa Is Going Viral
An emotional image of a mall Santa holding a framed photo of a baby is going viral after the man playing St. Nick posted it on Facebook with an important holiday reminder.
While portraying Santa Claus at a Georgia mall, Caleb Ryan Sigmon met a dad with an unusual wish. “A man walked in today holding something in his arms,” Sigmon wrote on his Facebook page, where he posts “Stories From the Big Chair” about his encounters as Kris Kringle. “‘I have a request,’ he said, turning around this picture frame. He took a moment. ‘My son passed away, last year.’ He choked up and couldn’t finish his sentence. The entire photo set was silent. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ Without anyone saying anything, he handed me the frame and I placed it on my knee. In the photo, I could see on the little boy’s armband that his first name was Hayden. I didn’t ask any questions, but I am guessing that this is his first photo with Santa.”
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Sigmon was correct. Hadyen Daniel died on Dec. 19, 2014, of a rare heart defect called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, according to a memorial Facebook page for the baby boy. So, last week, Hayden’s father, Kyle Daniel, decided to take one of his favorite photos of his son to see Santa, as he explained on the Facebook page.
The emotional encounter got the attention of everyone who witnessed it, Sigmon wrote. “The camera snap was the only sound I could hear through the entire mall,” he explained in the post. “Normally, I hear all kinds of music and sounds, but it was absolutely silent. After a handful of clicks, we walked over to the screen and he pointed, saying, ‘That’s the one.’ The girl working the computer printed him a full photo package and he pulled out his wallet, saying that this was going to be his gift to his wife. We gave him the printed package, telling him that it was a gift and that we would be praying for his family this Christmas. He grabbed my hand and pulled me in and hugged me, then turned around and left. As he walked out, we all had tears in our eyes.” Sigmon’s photo has gone viral since he posted it on Dec. 9, with more than 76,900 likes and 53,900 shares.
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Neither Sigmon nor Daniel responded to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.
Daniel shared Sigmon’s post on the Hayden Daniel’s Hope memorial page, where he expressed his gratitude toward the mall Santa. “We are forever grateful to him for doing this for us,” he wrote. “Thank you Caleb for making a hard situation easier for me.”
Sigmon concluded his post with a reminder that the holiday season isn’t always a happy one. “I’m sharing this to remind us all that Christmastime is unbelievably hard for some families,” he wrote. “Pray for the brokenhearted. Smile at people. Just be kind. Love one another.”
Daniel wrote that Sigmon’s message is exactly the one he wants to spread. “All we want is for you all to do something nice like Caleb did for us. Just be there for a random stranger this holiday. You don’t have to do anything big, sometimes all it takes is a smile and a hello,” he wrote on the memorial page. “So this Christmas as you’re with your family remember those who have lost loved ones, remember those who are not able to be with their families, remember those who have no family.”
According to the Facebook page, Daniel and his wife are expecting a baby in June.
(Photo: Facebook/Caleb Ryan Sigmon)
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