In an Instagram post from Humans Of New York, a woman says she was 5 when her future dad met her mother; he had been “working at an auto shop, airbrushing designs onto the side of vans.” To support the family, he became a cop instead. He built a small art studio in their home, with dreams of returning to painting when he retired, and completed a single painting in it—an image of Sting copied from an album cover. He was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which became so severe that he couldn’t hold a paintbrush. The woman came across the painting when they were going through her father’s possessions in his final days. “‘What should I do with this?'” she said. “His response was immediate. ‘Give it to Sting,’ he said. All of us started laughing. But Dad grew very serious. His eyes narrowed. He looked right at me, and said: ‘Give it to Sting.’ So I guess that’s my final assignment.” The widely-shared post came to the attention of the singer’s daughter, Mickey Sumner, who got in touch with the woman to help grant the man’s wish.
