Kristen Bell Flew to Detroit for Dying Father-in-Law
When Dax Shepard was overwhelmed caring for his dying father alone in Detroit, he called his pregnant wife just to vent. She answered from right outside his car window.
Thirteen years later, Dax Shepard still can't tell the story without crying.
In 2012, Shepard was flying from Los Angeles to Detroit every weekend to care for his dying father. He was filming Parenthood, his dad was battling cancer, and the hospital room had become an endless stream of well-meaning visitors who needed comforting themselves.
Shepard found himself in an impossible position. Instead of grieving with his father, he was consoling everyone else who came to say goodbye.
Overwhelmed, he went outside to sit in his car. He called his wife Kristen Bell, who was seven months pregnant with their first child back in California, just to vent about the situation.
"I was complaining, and she said, 'It's okay, I'm here. Look to the left,'" Shepard recalled at the New Orleans Book Festival in March. "We live in California, I'm in Detroit, and I look to the left and she's standing outside the car."
Bell had figured out which hospital his father was in and flown to Detroit without telling him. Seven months pregnant, she just showed up.
They went inside together. Bell lifted her shirt and let Dave Shepard put his hand on her belly, connecting with the granddaughter he would never meet in person.
He kept his hand there for almost an hour, smiling, unable to form full sentences but clearly present. Dave died on December 31, 2012, at 62 years old, three months before Lincoln was born.
Why This Inspires
Research shows that 74% of American adults turn to their spouse first for emotional support. But Bell didn't just answer the phone. She got on a plane while pregnant and showed up when her husband needed her most.
The relationship between Shepard and his father had been complicated for years. But in those final months, they'd reconciled, and Bell gave them both an unexpected gift in that hospital room.
"If I lived to be a thousand, I would still be in debt to my wife for giving him that one last thrill," Shepard wrote shortly after his father's death.
Sometimes love looks like booking a flight you weren't asked to take.
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Based on reporting by Upworthy
This story was written by BrightWire based on verified news reports.
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