A World of Warcraft player has shared the incredibly touching account of an in-game letter from his late father he’s kept in his inventory for 15 years.

WoW player Footlin, who first shared his story on Reddit, tells GamesRadar+ he got into the game at a young age after watching his father and older cousin play together. He was eventually invited into their ‘Bootcamp’ guild and given the name Footlin as a reference to his young age comparative to the rest of the guildmembers.

Footlin tells us his father was a Warlock in WoW “and the most iconic gear I remember his wearing was the tier 4 set with its black hole looking helmet, and the tier 5 set with its spooky helmet.”

He and his father would play WoW “all the time,” even up to the point where his father’s condition, a rare neurodegenerative disorder called motor neuron disease, meant “he had to macro everything into as few buttons as possible, and played with the arcade machine controls of a joystick and 6 big buttons.”

Even after completely losing the ability to play, Footlin says his father would still watch him play, however, he tragically succumbed to the disease sometime in 2009.

At some point while he was still able, Footlin’s father sent an in-game letter to Footlin that read, “Love you son” and was signed, “Dad xxx”. It’s still in Footlin’s inventory 15 years later.

“I don’t remember exactly when, but before he lost the ability to play, he made sure I’d always have something to remind me he was watching over my shoulder, especially when playing WoW,” Footlin says.

Many people in the WoW community reacted to Footlin’s story with various expressions of sympathy as well as fond memories of playing the game with their own loved ones, some of whom have also passed away. Some also expressed concern over the potential impermanence of a digital item in an online game and urged Footlin to screenshot the letter and make a back-up in case something happens.

Fortunately, by sharing the story and a screenshot online he’s already taken one measure to ensure he never loses the letter.

“I’ve always had it just in my inventory and it’s been enough. But now hearing the horror stories that it might go away I might email Blizzard and ask what the best way to ensure it’s never removed,” he tells us.