In Deborah Notaro Finck’s final days, the beloved content creator sent her daughter Katerina a text message.
It read: “I love you more than you know, and I will always be with you. Just say my name and I’ll be there, I promise.”
Finck, who passed away on Jan. 14, after a five-year battle with a rare and aggressive muscle cancer, is keeping her word.
Katerina recently shared on TikTok the signs she has received from her late mom.
In the video, Katerina reflected on the day that Finck died.
“I was sitting on my bed, really sad, and I just said, ‘Mom, can you show me a sign?’” Katerina recalled. Moments later, Katerina said her dog, Beanie, appeared with a stuffed animal in her mouth.
“Beanie literally dropped it in my lap,” Katerina said.
The stuffed animal — a turtle — had been a gift from Katerina to her mother, and Beanie had plucked it from a basket filled with plushies.
Two days later, when Katerina was filling an album book with pictures of herself and her mom, she felt Finck’s presence again.
“I was telling her that I missed her, and I was just thinking about all the good memories we had together, and everything she taught me,” Katerina said on TikTok. “And the moment I said that, this came out of the book.”
An emotional Katerina held up a crochet sunflower bookmark for viewers to see. Finck was known for her love of sunflowers.
“Before my mom passed, she told me that her sign was sunflowers,” Katerina said.
“I do believe my mom’s watching over me,” Katerina said. “But it still doesn’t feel real. Like I feel like she’s away or something right now.”
Katerina posted a goodbye earlier this month, calling Finck her “best friend” and her “sunshine.” Finck described Katerina as her “mini-me.”
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. You were the most beautiful mother and the best mommy anyone could ever ask for. You taught me strength, courage, bravery, and what it means to truly love and never give up,” Katerina wrote in an Instagram tribute. “You believed in me, stood by me, and showed me the meaning of unconditional love.”
“I don’t even know you guys but I fell in love with your family. Your mom was such a bright light and I will very much miss her daily posts and big smile,” one person wrote in the comments.