A mum has released heartbreaking footage of her four-year-old daughter opening a birthday card from her "daddy on the Moon".
Mum Abby Lever, 30, wanted to make little Ayla Rose's fourth birthday as special as possible after losing her husband and the father of her children in December.
Ewen Lever, 29, died in a three-vehicle crash on his way to work on the A361, near Burford, Oxfordshire, on December 9.
The tragic accident left his wife Abby as a single mum to their two children, who also include seven-month-old Poppy Rose.
When Ayla turned four on March 3, the first birthday without her dad, her mum decided to get creative to help comfort her daughter.
Abby, from Swindon, Wilts, said: "I lost my grandad in September and Ayla decided that he was on the Moon so we just went along with it.
"She asked Ewen and I if we were going to go to the moon and we told her of course not.
"But little did we know that three and a half months later, he would.
"The only way I could explain it to her was that her daddy was now on the Moon and it worked.
"We wave to the moon every night and I know it won't work forever but she thinks her daddy is on the Moon and for now, that's comforting her.
"She just turned four but without her, I don't think I could do it.
"She's grown into this lovely little girl and she comforts me on a daily basis, wiping my tears and cuddling me."
Abby admitted she tried her best to make things special for Ayla on the morning of her birthday, but it was hard, particularly when she said she wished her dad could be there.
She added: "I'm having to face all these hurdles as a solo parent and firsts without him and her birthday was one of the hardest yet."
Abby was on maternity leave when she got a knock at her door on December 9 letting her know her childhood sweetheart had been in a fatal car accident.
Plumber Ewen, who would've been 30 this month, had gone to work at 6.45am and then failed to answer his wife's call at 9.30am.
Abby said when she opened the door to the police, she "instantly knew something was wrong".
She continued: "Within a matter of minutes, I had to be a mummy and daddy forever, it was horrendous.
"I didn't understand how he could be here one minute and then gone the next.
"If I didn't have our kids, I couldn't have carried on without him."
Now, Abby is hoping to support other men and women who have also lost their partner at a young age.
