Yesterday, a fire blazed through the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, raging for 15 hours and collapsing the ancient building's familiar spire. While the roof of the cathedral caved, reports from France sound optimistic that it's been left structurally sound with the bell towers intact, and the fire is believed to be accidental.
While French citizens and people around the world are, in a way, mourning the historic structure, many are sharing personal photos from their travels to Notre Dame. One Twitter user in particular, 23-year-old American tourist Brooke Windsor, shared a photo she took just hours before it caught fire. In it, a man is swinging a giggling little girl around in a captured moment of pure delight, and the serendipitous photographer is hoping to find who she assumes to be the father/daughter duo she inadvertently snapped.
"I do not know for sure if it was a dad and daughter, it's simply the dynamic I observed from them while debating on interrupting the moment," she wrote on Twitter.
Now, the photo has over 100,000 retweets and news stations are reaching out to spread the word about Brooke's photo. The hope is that the sweet moment is passed on to the picture's subjects, especially given the devastation that followed soon after it was taken.
While the search is on for this photo, other users responded to Brooke's call to action with their own snapshots of the 800-plus-year-old cathedral in its prime and expressed their well wishes for finding the adorable family.
Here's hoping we find them! Share, share, share!