DRAWN in her childish scrawl, Elena Desserich's "I love you" notes are decorated with hearts and pictures of her smiling.
One shows her playing with mummy Brooke, another features a drawing of her and beloved younger sister Grace.
Elena's letters were a way of telling her family how much she loved them. But to them, the messages are treasured gifts that have helped them deal with grief.
For Elena died from cancer aged just six. Her last months were spent drawing hundreds of notes which, unknown to her family, she hid all over the house for them to discover.
It was only after Elena died that her messages began to be found.
Mum Brooke, 34, said: "I think the notes were her way of telling us everything would be OK.
"It is like a hug from her every time we find one."
When Brooke discovered the first message, in a box, she thought it was just a drawing that had been accidentally tucked away.
Then days later, devastated dad Keith, 35, found another in a pocket of his jeans.
He said: "I started to find them everywhere - in my clothes drawer, in my wardrobe, tucked in the pages of books, among CDs."
Brooke found them in recipe books and in between plates in the kitchen cupboards.
It was then they realised what Elena had done - and more than two years after her death they are STILL finding notes.
Keith, a businessman, said: "We have found around 300 so far. We even found them in the bags of Christmas decorations."
Many of the messages bear a heart with the words: "I love you mom, dad and Grace."
Some are written for Grace, who was four when Elena died. One reads: "I love you Grace. Go, go."
A big purple heart has a stick drawing of all Elena's family holding hands.
Some notes were addressed to her grandparents, others to her auntie's dog Sally.
The messages have been collated in a book called Notes Left Behind, published by William Morrow And Company.
After reading it many parents have written to the Desserichs, who live in Wyoming in the US, to say it has made them treasure their children more.
Proud
Keith said: "Dads especially have told me, 'I spend more time with my kids now'. Others have said it has made them a better parent.
"I think it has reminded people how precious children are."
Pretty Elena was diagnosed with a rare, inoperable brain cancer when she was only five.
Doctors told her parents she had just four and a half months to live. She battled the disease for nine before dying in August 2007.
Elena was never told how seriously ill she was. Dad Keith said: "I hate to think she knew she was dying but I think she did."
The book contains Elena's messages along with diary entries her parents made during her illness.
Brooke said Elena - who "loved everything pink and anything with polka-dots" - also loved to draw. Before she died, proud Elena went to a Cincinnati museum where one of her drawings of a heart was hung next to a Picasso painting.
Along with the notes, Elena also wrote a "Guide To Kindergarten" for Grace. She also drew up a "To Do List" to achieve before she died.
This included swimming with dolphins, going to Disneyland and up the Eiffel Tower - and she managed to achieve most of them.
For Keith, one of Elena's wishes was extra special - to dance with her dad at a wedding. The chance came on a relative's big day, where Elena was a flower girl. Keith said: "That is the last and best memory I have of her. I wish it could have been at her wedding when she grew up... we lost her two days later."
During her nine-month struggle, Keith wrote an online blog about Elena which was read by thousands. The book has already sold hundreds of thousands.
The Desserichs are immensely proud of their little girl. Keith said: "It's amazing what a six-year-old girl can teach us.
"Elena wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. The lesson she taught is not one of death and cancer, it of hope and living.
"She taught me how to live, how to love and how to laugh. I will never forget that lesson."
Keith and Brooke both have one unopened note from Elena which they always carry with them. Brooke said: "It's our way of saving the last note."
Keith added: "We don't ever want to find the last message. I hope we keep on finding them for years."
www.thesun.co.ukhttp://www.notesleftbehind.com/
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