This Eight-Year-Old's Dad Was Deployed Overseas, So He Went To His Neighbor With A Strange Request

Jul 21, 2018 by apost team

Think back to your childhood. Imagine if one of your parents was enlisted in the military and got deployed to a foreign, war-torn land. How would you feel? 

Brian Kelly, just eight years old, is the son of an Air Force cadet. Kelly's father was sent off to Syria in the past few months. From the time he left the Kelly residence, Brian felt a gaping hole in his heart and void in his emotional sense of well-being.

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While some neighbors loudly yell things like, "Get off my lawn, meddling kids," other neighbors are good-hearted people who genuinely care about their next-door counterparts.

Young Brian Kelly's neighbors were hands-down the latter type of neighbors and knew about the elder Kelly's enrollment in the United States Air Force. They also knew all too well about his deployment halfway across the world

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Brian always helped his father take care of yard work before he was deployed. Even though the little guy wasn't physically able to do the same tasks his father could, his dad allowed him to help because the hard labor served as a bonding opportunity between the pair.

One day after his dad's departure, Brian knocked on his neighbors door with a strange request.

He wanted to know if he could help them do yard work. They were surprised at first, but after realizing why, they agreed in a heartbeat.

From that day forward, Brian helped the married couple take care of "dad stuff" - yard chores - as a means of coping with his father's departure.

We all love our parents. Imagine being separated from them as a kid due to mandatory military deployment. How would you feel? Would you have let Brian help out with the yard work?