Just Write

Callaghan’s book has been translated into several languages.

Little did Garth Callaghan know that when he wrote his very first sentiment on a napkin and slipped it into his young daughter’s lunchbox, that the gesture would go on to inspire thousands of parents across the world to follow his lead, as well as start a meaningful family tradition for years to come.

Callaghan, who is from Richmond, Virginia, began to write these “napkin notes” for his daughter, Emma, when she was in kindergarten. As Emma got older, and he was stricken with cancer, the once sporadic custom took on a deeper meaning, and the notes became a daily occurrence.

After Callaghan’s third cancer diagnosis, he realized that he might not be around to see Emma graduate from high school. Callaghan was determined not to allow their tradition to rely on his health status. As a contingency plan, he pledged to write Emma a note for each day until she graduates high school.

FOCUSING ON THE NOTES

Eight hundred twenty-six. That’s the number of napkin notes Callaghan has written in advance for Emma. That means one for each day until Emma graduates from high school, whether he is still around or not.

Last year, Callaghan wrote a book, Napkin Notes: Make Lunch Meaningful, Life Will Follow. The memoir, which has been translated into several languages, has been extremely successful, and the rights to the Napkin Notes movie were recently purchased.

The Callaghans’ story has received widespread media attention. The experience, Callaghan said, has been like being “catapulted into the spotlight.” Yet he chooses to not let the attention distract him from what he really wants to accomplish through napkin notes. He lives by the motto: “If I just focus on the notes, everything else will work itself out.”

Today, Callaghan spends his time encouraging parents around the world to write napkin notes to their own children, using the expression “Pack. Write. Connect.”  

“Writing is really simple,” he said when I asked what advice he had for parents who aspire to follow in his footsteps. “Just write.”

However, the biggest legacy of Callaghan’s napkin notes may be the impact they have had on his daughter. Just as Callaghan did years ago, Emma looks forward to slipping a napkin note into her child’s lunchbox on his or her first day of kindergarten. “I definitely plan on writing napkin notes to my own children someday,” she said.

Learn more about “The Napkin Notes Dad.”