Paige Bennethum: Little Soldier Girl Didn't Want to Say Goodbye

by Gordon Clark | October 8, 2009 at 10:19 am

1452 views | 16 Recommendations | 0 comments

As four-year-old Paige Bennethum saw her father off as he was being shipped to Iraq she could barely let go of him, as the photo linked below ("Little Soldier Girl") shows. As all the soldiers fell into line waiting to be deployed Paige stood with them. Her mother Abby tried to call her back but Paige wouldn't let go of her father's hand.

"I called her a couple times, but she wouldn't budge," Abby said. "I don't know if the officers didn't see her because they were in the back row, or they simply didn't say anything about her being there."
"She just wouldn't let go of him," she said.

The picture took on a life of its own online this week. Abby says that suddenly, people were knocking on her door. "Literally overnight, there's all these people that just want to do anything they can," she says. Though she says her husband hasn't seen any stories about his family yet, he expects to.

For her part, Paige still remembers how she felt that day in July. Looking at the picture of herself – her dad now overseas – Paige remembers, "I didn't want to let go of him."