Teen Girl Writes Sweet Message to Her Deceased Father on a Balloon Asking for a Sign—and She Got One (From 400 Miles Away)

"Show me a sign please. Anything to let me know you're there. I miss you so much and I want you back," Ashlynn Marracino wrote

Tuesday is really becoming a tearjerker (but not in a bad way).

A 16-year-old girl from Whittier, Calif., unknowingly touched a number of hearts along the California coast after releasing a balloon with a hand-written message to her deceased father.

The innocent and heartwarming act is nothing out of the ordinary for Ashlynn Marracino, who writes a letter to her father on his birthday, January. 6, almost every year since he died of a brain aneurysm in 2010, according to reports.

But this year was different. This year, Ashlynn got a response—and it came from nearly 400 miles away.

"I think it came to us for a reason," Lisa Swisley, who found the deflated balloon outside her restaurant in Auburn, Calif. (436 miles away), told CBS News.

Jacob Brandt was leaving Local Heroes after lunch when he came across a deflated balloon crumpled on the ground. He asked if there was a trashcan because at the time he thought it was litter, but quickly realized he had stumbled upon something much greater.

"I've been playing softball for 11 years now. Can you believe it? I Hope you helped me out with all those home runs," Ashlynn wrote to her father on the balloon. "I don't like how I never had you in my life. It's not fair. Show me a sign please. Anything to let me know you're there. I miss you so much and I want you back."

Swisley found Ashlynn on Facebook and the two ended up connecting for the first time on Skype Monday evening.

Lisa told her she is a member of a "Pay It Forward" Facebook page for her town. She shared the letter, and now cards and packages for Ashlynn are pouring in.

"I told him to show me a sign, and I think this is a sign to not hold grudges and to forgive really easily," Ashlynn said, mentioning that the night before her father died, she saw he called and didn't pick up.

"I wish I could fix it," she said.

However, the young SoCal teen feels that this miraculous experience was the message from her dad that she's been waiting for, and he's telling her "he loves me and and let's not be down or get down on myself."