Dr. Oz: Father Writes Napkin Notes to His Daughter in Her Lunch Box

Dr. Oz: One Family’s Napkin Note Tradition

Dr. Oz talked on his show about Garth and Emma Callahan, a father and a daughter, who have a special family tradition that is guaranteed to tug on your heart strings and make you ugly-cry. Every day since elementary school, Garth wrote inspirational messages on napkins for his daughter’s lunch box. This tradition was silly at first, but now it has an added weight.

When Emma was in the sixth grade, Garth became diagnosed with kidney cancer. She had just turned 12. Garth had surgery days before Christmas. Garth felt bad from his surgery, but he continued to write notes.

That’s when he learned Emma had been saving the notes. Each note could be the last and Garth knew it.

Dr. Oz: Father Writes Notes to Daughter in Lunches

These notes have messages that are intended to help make Emma a better person. Like, “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why” and “Look to yourself. You know the right path, always. It’s your choice to make the right decision.”

Garth has an unspoken promise to always make Emma lunch and always write a note. Last fall, he was diagnosed with cancer and it was his third diagnosis. She was graduating about five years from that same time. His five year survival rate is about 8 percent.

So Garth decided to write more notes. He counted out how many days there were until high school graduation and he started to write notes. He made it to 826, which is how many school days Emma had left until she graduated.

Garth said this is one way he can control his disease. He wanted to make sure that if he’s not around, his daughter would be able to see him through these notes.

“Even though I don’t know how long I have, none of us do. It’s the relationships you have and the friendships you have and how you continue to build and strengthen them that matter. Life is about taking your daughter to school or going to her softball game or maybe something as simple as making your daughter’s lunch and writing her a note. I can only hope that I’ll be able to see her write napkin notes to her kids,” he said.

Dr. Oz: Father Encourages Daughter with Napkin Notes

Garth and Emma came by Dr. Oz and he asked Garth what his message was for his daughter. Garth said that Emma needed to be herself. He said he wasn’t a very confident teenager and he didn’t feel comfortable in his skin. He wants her to feel comfortable with who she is.

Emma has started writing notes back to her father. Garth’s wife Lisa was also there in the audience. She said it’s great seeing their bond and that Garth has helped Emma become a strong young woman.

Garth Callahan wrote a book about this called Napkin Notes and his life story has been optioned for a movie.