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Ever since he could remember, little four year old Everett Hamlin from Bonaire, Georgia loved his pet goldfish named Nemo. The boy was just months old when his parents decided to get him his first pet and, being fond of fish, they ended up bringing home Nemo. Everett would spend hours sitting in front of the tank just watching the goldfish swim around in his bowl and he’d often pick out special little things to decorate Nemo’s home with.
As far as pet goldfish go, the average lifespan is not very long with most living about 2-3 years. Being 4 years old, Nemo had outlived that average. Everett’s mother, Tori Hamlin, attributed Nemo’s long life to taking excellent care of him and cleaning his tank often but none of that mattered after one February night
After putting Everett to bed Tori and her husband heard a sound coming from his room. They asked him what was going on and he told them that his dresser had made the noise. Brushing it off as him being fidgety and playing around, they told him to go back to bed and resumed watching TV. A little while later, Tori went to check in on her son and immediately noticed that he had pushed a chair in his room up to the dresser. There on the floor beside it lay the fish tank but Nemo was not in it. Everett was fast asleep in bed, so Tori cleaned up the tank yet saw no sign of the goldfish.
After looking all over the place with her husband for Nemo they finally found him and could not believe their eyes. There in little Everett’s hand was the poor goldfish. Tori was shocked but managed to take a picture before she woke him up. When he saw that Nemo was dead, he was heartbroken and explained that all he’d wanted to do was cuddle with his pet fish.
Everett’s parents knew he had never tried to pick up Nemo before and chalked it up as an innocent, one-time mistake. After explaining what happened to their son the next morning, he told them that if he got another fish, he promised to never touch it and that from now on he would only touch fish when he went fishing.
Trying to make the most of the sad situation, Tori decided she wouldn’t punish her son. Rather, she saw it as a chance for him to learn from his mistake. In the end, the family went to the pet store and got a brand new tank along with several goldfish, which Everett has promised not to touch. After the story went viral, people everywhere praised Tori for showing empathy and understanding and giving her son a second chance to get it right.
Watch the video below for the full story:
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