Dana Perino announced on Instagram that her father Leo Perino passed away unexpectedly at 79 — and what she shared about the moment he was found stopped everyone who read it completely cold. On his bedside was a copy of her new novel Purple State — partway completed — and Dana said she was crushed he did not finish it but grateful he made it to a certain scene that clearly meant something to both of them.

She wrote that her dad was a great girl dad who made sure both his daughters knew they could go far — and they did. Three words from a daughter to her father. Three words that said everything a lifetime of love could never fully put into language.