I Kept Coming Home to a Toothpick in th
Problem
I came home after a tough shift to find “someone had shoved a toothpick deep into the keyhole!”
It happened again the next night; my brother installed a hidden camera and captured a small girl in a yellow raincoat doing it.
Discovery
I approached her gently. She admitted, “I thought maybe if your lock broke, someone would come fix it.
Someone like my dad used to.” She’d been creating “jobs” to keep his memory alive.
Healing
I invited her to help with real repairs instead.
Over weeks she learned tools, brought a broken toy, and said, “Thanks. It feels like Dad helped me one more time.” We started weekly “fix-it” sessions with cocoa.
Twist
Cleaning the garage I found an old toolbox with handwritten labels and the serial tied to a handyman named Tomas. I returned it; she wept, “This is his.” She became “Little Tomas,” helping neighbors and honoring her father.
