Little boy's touching letter to his police officer dad goes viral

A LEO family of four had their lives changed by five words, spoken by the 9-year-old son.

I just miss my Dad.

It all started on the evening of June 14th.

When LEOW, Ruth, went to sleep that night, she had no idea she’d be waking up to an onslaught of social media attention from friends, family, and strangers across the country.

To her amazement, that’s exactly what happened.

All thanks to a letter from her son.

Along with the photo, Ruth added a poignant statement of her own.

Being a police officer is not easy. Being married to a police officer is not easy.

Having a police officer as a parent is not easy. Not only do our officers sacrifice a lot, but for us the families, it takes a lot of strength and making sacrifices too.

This is a letter that my husband woke up to this morning from my 9-yr-old son.

He has to sacrifice spending time with his dad so that YOUR family, can sleep safe at night. After all, it takes a special person to risk so much for people who care so little. So, the next time you see a police officer, show a little kindness.

Before sharing the letter, she made sure to get his permission. She explained to him how helpful his letter might be to other law enforcement children like him.

I saw a post and it was it was another police wife who was having just a really rough time … with family – they don’t understand what it what it’s like … and so it made me angry [for them].

When my son got back from school I asked him if it was OK ’cause anything that I post that has to do with my kids, like something so personal like that, like a personal letter to his dad, I wasn’t just going to do it without the permission of my son.

I said, ‘this is this is a very strong letter. This is how you feel. I bet you anything that there’s other LEO kids that feel the same way that you do, and that would be good for them to see.’

Isaac liked the idea of helping other LEO kids, and told him Mom to share it.

As it turned out, it was a letter that touched the hearts of law enforcement families everywhere, including that of well-known Officer Daniels, who then shared the letter to his 2.5 million followers.

So, how did the letter come about?

When being interviewed on the Blue Family Unity Show, Ruth detailed the circumstances leading up to the letter.

My husband got a position at work and it required a lot of training. It was a lot of physical [training] and hours studying. Kids don’t realize everything that they [LEOs] have to go through.

Ruth understood the separation time was impacting their close-knit family, particularly their introverted son who’d recently taken to writing as a form of expression at her encouragement.

She went on to explain that the challenges of schooling during the pandemic only added to their heightened stress levels and change from routine.

Fortunately, for this west Texas family, Ruth knew exactly how to handle the situation: with love and compassion for both her husband and children.

The night before[the letter] he was just crying and I don’t know how to – I can’t fix my son, I can’t – just the way he feels, but I can try to be understanding and I can try to sympathize and try to just listen and so that’s what I was doing.

And I told him I know this is a challenge and I know this is hard but a lot of times we make sacrifices.

Just like your dad made sacrifices for us, we make sacrifices for him because this is what your dad wants and sometimes, when we love someone so much, we we sacrifice for them and I know that this time with your dad is really special – you’re very close with your dad, but let’s try to find a way to how we can squeeze in time.

We don’t want you to feel like you’re alone and we don’t want you to feel like your dad is gone a lot.

Ruth admitted the letter gave her husband pause. He wondered if the new position was worth the time apart from his beloved family. Ruth reassured him that she and their son and daughter were proud of him and supported him.

I know it was really hard for him to see that. He questioned, what am I doing?

Of course, he wants to continue this, but to my husband we are we are the most important thing for him. Family comes before anything else and it’s always been like that.

When my husband was in the military he was in the army and we’ve been we’ve been married for 13 years and one of one thing that he’s always showed us is that family always comes first.

Their incredible family dynamic is further evident in how Ruth describes their home life.

I always tell my kids and my husband, you know, our home is a safe place and not just for my family, but for my friends, for people that that visit our [home].

This is a safe place for us, this is where we’re gonna be ourselves, and if we feel a certain way we’re going to speak up. We don’t hold it in.

Backlash from anti-police groups.

Along with the outpouring of support, there came also negativity from hate groups. Said Ruth:

Well, the more people started sharing it, it is going to reach [other] groups, like ANTIFA. They started trolling my page and they turned something so beautiful, something so real into something negative because that is what they do. Anything that is pro police, there’s going to be people that hate that.

The comments – some from people who worked in mental health fields and with young children – were vile, hateful and threatening.

Complete strangers wished death on not only her husband, but her and her children. Friends and family who were disturbed by the hateful comments implored her to remove or make private her post.

They reached out to me and they’re like, you’re getting trolls on your page. Maybe you should not [put it] on Facebook. It’s good that your vocal, but it’s not that good.

Ruth’s response to their advice might surprise.

How they feel is not my problem. If they have something negative to say, it has nothing to do with me and it has everything to do with them – with who they are. People like that – trolls like that, I cannot give them the power.

And so, Ruth decided to keep her post open for the public. As a result, her LEOF came out in full force to defend and protect one of their own.

Sadly, the ultra liberal leaning, social media giant, Facebook, never took action against the many troll accounts. Not even the ones with death threats.

With the support of her husband, Ruth has vowed to not back down from the internet trolls, especially when knowing the positive impact her posts have made on other LEO families who struggle with the daily challenges of police family life.