--- title: Family Finds Balloon Sent By Boy to His Dad 'In Heaven' description: A Georgia woman shared the discovery of the balloon and an attached handwritten note on Facebook—and then found the child who wrote it. canonical: https://time.com/4596482/family-discovers-touching-christmas-note-inside-balloon-sent-by-little-boy-to-his-dad-in-heaven/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-09T19:47:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:21.365Z og:title: Family Finds Balloon Sent By Boy to His Dad 'In Heaven' og:description: A Georgia woman discovered the deflating balloon's note—and then found the boy. og:url: https://time.com/4596482/family-discovers-touching-christmas-note-inside-balloon-sent-by-little-boy-to-his-dad-in-heaven/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Family Finds Balloon Sent By Boy to His Dad 'In Heaven' twitter:description: A Georgia woman discovered the deflating balloon's note—and then found the boy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Family Discovers Touching Christmas Note Inside Balloon Sent By Little Boy to His Dad 'In Heaven' > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=8efefcd2-9052-48e8-a0c7-573e89e61639&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 9, 2016 7:47 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 9, 2016 7:47 PM UTC This week, a Georgia family [discovered a deflating balloon](http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/222170452-story) had drifted into their backyard—with a [touching message](http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/08/31/97-year-old-message-in-a-bottle-found-off-british-coast-sets-new-world-record/?iid=sr-link1) attached. “A helium balloon floated into my yard today and landed in my heart,” wrote Suzanne Womac Edwards on a photo of the handwritten note, which she uploaded to Facebook. “Attached was a note that made me cry and hug my family a little tighter.” The note was from a young boy, and was addressed to his apparently deceased father. “Dad, I wish you were here so we could have fun together. I wish you a Merry Christmas,” the child’s note reads. “I hope you tell God to give me those presents. I hope you are happy in heaven. If you are, OK then tell me. I love you, Alexander.” In her Facebook post on Tuesday, Edwards asked the web community to help her find Alexander. And a few days later, they were in fact connected; the mother of the boy reached out to Edwards, calling her return message to her son “a miracle.” You can read the whole exchange below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4596482/family-discovers-touching-christmas-note-inside-balloon-sent-by-little-boy-to-his-dad-in-heaven/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4596482/family-discovers-touching-christmas-note-inside-balloon-sent-by-little-boy-to-his-dad-in-heaven/"},"headline":"Family Discovers Touching Christmas Note Inside Balloon Sent By Little Boy to His Dad 'In Heaven'","datePublished":"2016-12-09T19:47:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:21.365Z","description":"A whole new take on the \"message in a bottle.\"","url":"https://time.com/4596482/family-discovers-touching-christmas-note-inside-balloon-sent-by-little-boy-to-his-dad-in-heaven/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4596482/family-discovers-touching-christmas-note-inside-balloon-sent-by-little-boy-to-his-dad-in-heaven/","name":"Family Discovers Touching Christmas Note Inside Balloon Sent By Little Boy to His Dad 'In Heaven'"}}]}] ```