Laura’s Dad Passed Away. Then She Found His Bucket List, So She Checked Off Every Single Item on It

Laura Carney was just 25 years old when her father passed away due to a careless driver who ran a red light while talking on the cell phone. And in November 2016, Laura found herself in possession of a list her dad had once made titled “Things I Would Like to Do in My Lifetime.”

Laura spent almost six years making all her father’s dreams come true. And she’s succeeded. We share with you just a few of the items she’s been able to check off her dad’s bucket list.

Item 8: “Play the piano or guitar”

Laura’s father didn’t get enough time to learn to play the guitar properly. Every time he picked up the instrument, he would just run his fingers over the strings and then bang on it like a drum. For his daughter, learning the chords proved to be a challenge as well, but her husband helped her along the way.

“Today I mastered playing an E minor chord — apparently, it took strumming like I was tickling a cloud and less like I was banging a drum set,” Laura admitted. Before she started playing, she bought new strings for the guitar and even gave it a name. The instrument is now called Stella.

Item 15: “Visit London”

On her return from the trip, Laura posted a whole selection of photos from her holiday on her Instagram page. She took photos at many popular locations, including in front of the famous Tower Bridge.

Laura admitted that she loved London so much that she even started thinking about moving there and wasn’t too happy having to go back home.

Item 24: “Swim the width of a river”

“I did it! Owe most of the success to my runner’s thighs, haha,” Laura captioned the photo of her on a riverbank. It was taken moments after she stepped out of the water, crossing another item off her dad’s list.

The blogger traveled to Asheville, North Carolina, especially for this. In one trip, Laura accomplished two things that were important for her — she swam across the river and attended her nephew’s high school graduation.

Item 47: “Surf in the Pacific Ocean”

“I came... I saw... I stood on the board for a few seconds!” Laura described this experience, which was completely new for her. After several attempts, she managed to stand up on the surfboard, this way checking off another item on her father’s list.

Afterward, she showed off the scratches she got while battling the board and the waves. At one point, Laura was knocked over and even hit the Pacific Ocean floor. But all ended well, and the blogger candidly admitted that those were truly unforgettable moments.

Item 48: “Grow a watermelon”

The blogger planted four watermelon seeds in a pot, giving each one a name. In the end, little Audrey sprouted. Laura detailed the progression of the tiny watermelon, showing the forming of an ovary, from which a fruit gradually emerged.

According to Laura, the watermelon, which turned out to be the size of a tennis ball, clearly needed a few more weeks to ripen. But she decided to harvest it early — it was time to fulfill another item on her dad’s list.

Item 51: “Skydive at least once”

“We did this for Father’s Day. Every one of those guys in that tiny plane with me was a dad,” Laura told her followers.

This jump wasn’t easy for the blogger. She sincerely thanked the tandem instructor, with whom she soared through the air, but noted that she didn’t feel too comfortable, to put it mildly. She had also ignored her brother’s advice, though he had been skydiving before, and had breakfast. She ended up feeling sick while in the air.

Item 58: “Ride a horse fast”

To check off this entry, Laura got help from her cousin and her husband, who took on the role of cameraman and filmed everything that happened on the trip. After the horseback ride, it was safe to cross item number 58 off the list.

The journey through the desert and the sheer beauty of it literally captivated Laura. “Still kind of can’t believe this was a real thing that happened,” she wrote in her blog.

Laura wrote a book about all her adventures

Laura told her story in her autobiographical publication My Father’s List, where she also revealed how she found inner freedom. “If I’ve learned anything from this nearly 6-year experience, it’s that nothing matters more in this world than loving yourself enough to trust your own voice,” she noted.

What’s more, along the way, Laura met many people who have supported her. And the blogger’s special thanks went out to her mother. According to her, it was thanks to her mom that she learned to pursue her goals without paying attention to what other people say.

Now Laura has a list of her own

Following her father’s example, the blogger made a bucket list of her own and hid it in a box with an elephant on it. Now Laura is extremely curious as to what happens next.

She writes: “We all have a purpose. Our lives all have dignity. Embrace the risk involved in saying out loud what you want to do. You will find a way to do it... if not in your lifetime, perhaps in your children’s. As long as we care about the beauty of our dreams, we cannot fail.”

Would you like to make a bucket list? What items would you include on it?