Woman Shares Incredible Tale Explaining How Her Daughter Is Also Her Cousin

A woman has gone viral on Reddit after sharing a picture of a young girl who she said was both her cousin and her daughter.

But once readers read beyond the eye-catching headline, her post went on to detail a heartwarming story about loss and the importance of family.

Writing under the handle Beautiful-Card7976, the woman shared a picture of a bearded man holding a young child in his arms.

"The cute little girl is my cousin AND my daughter," the striking caption read. After clicking through, however, readers were given the whole story.

"This is my Uncle David, who died 22 years ago today, holding his little daughter (my cousin)," the post read. "Shortly after his death, my husband and I adopted her, and my cousin became my daughter."

"This is one of the few photographs she has with him, and she cherishes it," the post added. "She keeps it on her desk year-round, but she has been carrying it with her from room to room today."

The combination of the headline and the bittersweet story behind the picture helped the image go viral in a big way, amassing over 112,000 upvotes.

The loss of a parent can have a devastating impact on the development of a child. In 2018, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh completed a seven-year study on pediatric grief following parental death. What they found was that the loss had an early and persistent negative impact on the child's academic and social functioning.

However, Kristelin, the young girl featured in the viral image was one of the lucky ones. When her father, David, passed away, she had a family network ready and willing to step up.

That network included Alexis, the woman posting as Beautiful-Card7976, who told Newsweek her uncle's "last wish" before dying was that she and her husband adopt his daughter.

"My uncle got lung cancer, and we knew he was going to die," she said. "I had known her since birth and she was an adorable little child so it seemed like the logical answer and the whole family was in support of the idea."

Alexis still has fond memories of her uncle, remembering him as "the quiet one of the family" but someone she was drawn to, often accompanying him while he hung hides and worked as a roofer.

Even so, taking on Kristelin, who has developmental disabilities, was not without its challenges.

"We were in the process of adopting a baby boy at the same time we knew my uncle was dying," she explained.

Going from having no kids to both a newborn baby boy and 6-year-old girl was difficult enough but Alexis said that before that could happen Kristelin had to spend time in emergency foster care in a situation described by the family as "horrific."

Eventually, however, she was given the green light to go and live with Alexis. That was a special day.

"We had a big celebration," she recalled. "There were balloons and we bought her a new dress."

Kristelin officially became Alexis' daughter that day, though her room is decorated with pictures of her father. Alexis shared the post on Reddit to mark the anniversary of David's death after discovering her daughter had been carrying around a picture of her dad.

"It was sort of an honorarium to her and to my uncle," she said.

She acknowledged that the title of her post was clearly "a mistake" and attributed it to the fact she didn't realize there was a "limitation" on how much of the post was initially visible to users who may have not seen her explanation underneath.

Despite this, she said she's been left "completely dumbstruck" by the response to it, particularly those offering kind words and support.

"One kind Redditor has offered to restore the photographs and create a professional portrait for my daughter," she revealed. "It's really cool, because they're in the U.K. They insist on remaining anonymous. I plan to post an updated photograph of her holding the portrait when it arrives from overseas."

Update 8/5/22 6:10 a.m. EDT: This article has been updated with a new headline.