[This extraordinary Godwink story is also posted on Fox News Digital. You can help us by reading this story on that site, and posting any comments with kindness to counter the mischievous trolls.]

Lisa Brown Langley, the noted Martha’s Vineyard photographer, known as LA Brown, will never forget that day in London with her dad, Phil Brown, in 1992, and how a single comment could gnaw at her heart for years.

Lisa’s 30th birthday was approaching and her father turned to her with a smile and said, “It’s time I bought you something I’ve given every woman in our family… a Hermès scarf.” It was an expensive gift, and considered a treasure for the lady who wore it.

Yet, unlike other family recipients, her mother, grandmother, aunt and sisters, Lisa felt that one of those classic silken accessories would not resonate with her free-flowing personality.

She flippantly answered, “Oh Dad... I’m so appreciative... but, you know me… I’m an artist. I just wouldn’t wear a costly Hermès scarf. 

Yet, the very moment she said those words, she wanted to reel them back, worrying that she’d hurt her father’s feelings.

Four years later, her father suffered from leukemia and passed away. 

Lisa’s heart ached as tears unlocked the guilt, kept in a secret place, that now rose up. She could not shake the deep regret that something that was so important to her dear dad… his way of saying, “you are cherished”… was allowed to have been trivialized by her rejection. 

After bearing grief for weeks, she concluded she had but two choices. She could either remain curled in sorrow… or she could choose to piece her life back together, honoring her father’s dream for her by becoming the remarkable photographer he always believed she could be. She chose the latter. Today she is acclaimed as LA Brown, an accomplished photographic artist.

Twenty years passed. Lisa was nearing 50 when she and her husband Brendan strolled past London shops. As they wandered past a Hermès storefront, a realization jumped within her. Was this the very same shop… the one she had visited with her father? She couldn’t say.

She had never shared with Brendan the story of her Dad… and how she was saddened for years by turning down his kind offer to buy her a Hermès scarf. And how she wished she could have told her father how much that gift would have truly meant to her.

“It was not me then… but it is me now,” she said wistfully.

Brendan looked at her sweetly. “Would you like one of those scarfs for your birthday?”

Instantly she saw this as one of those moments when she needed to choose her words wisely so as not to hurt her husband’s feelings as well as her dad’s. 

Squeezing Brendan’s arm, looking at him directly, with a little shrug, she responded. “No… I now realize that buying me that scarf was important to my father. But…” she paused, adding a slight smile… “truth is, if it wasn’t from Dad, it wouldn’t be the same.” 

Two days later, arriving back to their Martha’s Vineyard home, Lisa saw that a package had arrived from her aunt. There was a hand-written warning: Do-Not-Open-Until-Your-Birthday. 

She couldn’t wait. She quickly sat down, ripped off the wrapper, slipped in her hand, and touched something silky!

She felt a flutter of anticipation. Closing her eyes … she took a breath … and tears began to fall. It was a Hermès scarf!

The note read:

“Dear Lisa, this scarf was given to your grandmother by your father. Now that she’s gone … I thought you’d like it.” 

Aunt Nan

Her heart leapt! A circle had been completed.

Lisa’s beloved Dad… in a special Godwink from heaven… had given her a treasured Hermès scarf after all.

Moments later, she playfully draped the scarf around her shoulders and turned to Brendan with a gleam in her eyes.

“Guess what?” She said, twirling.

“It’s me!”

Godwinks are not random acts in our lives. They are little messages of reassurance from above. Just like the time, when, as a kid, you sat at the big people’s table for the first time. 

Your Dad… or maybe Grandpa… gave you a little wink. 

You never said, “What do you mean by that?”

You knew… it meant, “Hey kid, I’m thinking of you right now.”

That’s what a Godwink is. A special message just for you, out of eight billion people on this planet. 

Lisa’s story originally appeared in SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt’s book, The Godwink Effect.