Everything has a beginning — the birth of something new and full of hope. The same is true for tooth fairies. The story of the tooth fairy begins many years ago during the Irish potato famine known as The Great Hunger. The Great Hunger was caused by a potato disease known as blight and lasted for approximately seven years. During this time, most of Ireland’s rural population relied almost exclusively on the potato for their diet. With the blight destroying the majority of Ireland’s potato farms, it caused many Irish families to encounter extreme hunger. This is where the name “The Great Hunger” came from. Starvation and disease spread throughout Ireland, causing many families to flee their homeland in search of food and a better life. Many of these families arrived in the ports of the United States, in cities such as New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.
One such family was the O’Brien family. Upon arriving in New York City, like many Irish immigrants, the O’Brien’s settled in an Irish ghetto of New York City. Mr. William O’Brien was once one of Ireland’s largest potato farmers, but when Mr. O’Brien lost his crop to the blight, he was unable to support his family. During this same time, Mrs. O’Brien gave birth to a baby boy, who they named Thomas. Not long after having baby Thomas, Mrs. O’Brien became very ill and passed away. This terrible tragedy was too much for Mr. O’Brien, who made the difficult decision to flee Ireland in search of a better life for his family.
Mr. O’Brien left Ireland with his three young daughters, mother-in-law, and his only son, Thomas. After arriving in New York City, Mr. O’Brien took the little money he had, and rented a tiny, humble, one-bedroom apartment to call home. Mr. O’Brien was not only a hard-working farmer, but he was also really good at working with wood. In fact, Mr. O’Brien made almost all of the family’s furniture in the farmhouse back in Ireland. Now in New York, Mr. O’Brien was unable to find work, so he did the only other thing he knew to do, make furniture. He started making chairs and tables out of wood that he collected throughout the city. Although making furniture did not make his family rich, it provided the family with food and a stable place to live.
Before they knew it, five years had passed and Mr. O’Brien became known for his superior woodworking skills. Eventually, he saved up enough money to secure a small shop to build his furniture in. While Mr. O’Brien worked in the shop, his daughters went to school, and Thomas would stay home with his grandmother, who cared for him like a mother — sparing no love, comfort, or kindness. Unlike his sisters, Thomas had no desire to go to school. He wanted to work with his father in his shop, learning to work with wood, but that couldn’t happen just yet. You see, there was a long-standing tradition in the O’Brien family that after a boy lost his first tooth, he could go and work with his father. This monumental occasion was usually celebrated by the father leaving a small coin under the boy’s pillow, as a symbol that the father recognized the boy was growing up and ready to learn a trade.
Not long after Mr. O’Brien opened his shop, Thomas discovered his first loose tooth. During a time that should have been marked by excitement, tragedy struck the O’Brien family once again. One early morning, Mr. O’Brien saw flames and smoke arising from the area of his shop. Rushing over, Mr. O’Brien saw his shop consumed by flames. He ran to aid those trying to put out the fire, but it was too late. Everything was lost, including all of Mr. O’Brien’s inventory and supplies.
Overcome with grief and shock, Mr. O’Brien chose not to tell his family of the tragic news. For the first couple of days after the fire, Mr. O’Brien left as he normally would, so as not to alarm the family. He walked around the nearby areas looking for whatever work he could find, while trying to find a way to rebuild what had been lost. About a month after the fire, Mr. O’Brien learned that Thomas had lost his first tooth.
After learning that Thomas had lost his first tooth, Mr. O’Brien, wanting to hide his shame of having no coin to leave under his son’s pillow, left the family home and went to a nearby park. At the park, he found a bench under a huge oak tree where he sat and wept in secret. Mr. O’Brien’s tears were so large and heavy with grief, that when they hit the ground, remnants of dust disturbed the clear crisp air that once rested around his feet. Mr. O’Brien did not recognize the disturbance caused by his tears, because his mind was consumed with how he was going to tell his family that they lost everything again? How could he tell Thomas he had no money for his pillow? Unbeknownst to him, during all of his contemplation, something special was happening below his feet—a tiny seedling had begun to grow where his tears once landed. The seedling, through no power or will of its own, was giving birth to a magic that would last for generations to come.
After leaving the bench, Mr. O’Brien got the courage to go home and tell his mother-in-law about the fire. As he traveled, the seedling grew into a beautiful lily that glimmered like silver in the moonlight. As the lily bloomed, the pedals revealed the most beautiful fairy lying inside. Inside the lily and around the fairy was a silver glittery dust. The fairy’s hair was the same silverish color as the lily and her eyes were a brilliant blue. Around her shoulder hung a magical satchel that contained fairy dust and the need of whatever child she was to visit. She was gentle in spirit and heart, and as she stood to her feet, her beautiful silver wings spread out with the wind. She came to us with no name but would become known by the very flower that gave her life, Lily. Under Lily’s feet lay a small coin, shining in the moonlight. She looked at the coin in bewilderment, and as she reached down to take hold of it, before she had time to understand its meaning—she was in flight, soaring through the air, led by nothing but her wings and an ache in her heart.
Within minutes, Lily arrived at the O’Brien’s window seal. She did not know who the window belonged to, but her heart told her she was where she needed to be. The window was cracked just enough for her to squeeze in. She arrived just in time to hear Mr. O’Brien tell the tragic story of the fire. Mr. O’Brien’s sorrow felt almost like her own, for out of it she was born — a sorrow that was pure and unselfish, rooted only in the care and love for another. Suddenly, the ache she had in her heart became clear. As Mr. O’Brien spoke to the grandmother about the fire and how he had no coin to place under Thomas’s pillow, Lily needed no further explanation, her heart told her what the coin was for. She waited until the family fell asleep, flew to Thomas’s bed and gently placed the coin under Thomas’s pillow. Evidence of her presence was found in the small trace of silver fairy dust she left behind and a little note that appeared in her satchel that read, “Your Father loves you! Honor Him.”
Lily waited outside the window until morning, curious to see what kind of impact such a small object would have on the family. When Thomas awoke the next morning and found the coin under his pillow, he ran to his father with all the joy and excitement a five-year-old boy could muster. Thomas jumped on his father’s lap, opened his tiny fist and offered up the coin he found under his pillow. Amazement covered Mr. O’Brien’s face, as tears filled his eyes. He had no words, only a simple question, “Thomas…where did you get that?!” Being innocent to the shock and confusion his father displayed, Thomas simply said, “Under my pillow, Papa! Now I can go to the shop with you!”
Thomas’s grandmother came into the room from outside and saw the little boy’s hand proudly displaying the coin. Thomas, gazing up at his father, joyfully said, “It came with this.” Thomas then offered up the note that he found with the coin. Lily witnessed the tears fall from Mr. O’Brien’s eyes as the boy held the note in front of him. Thomas asked his father what the note said, to which his father replied, “Only that I love you, Dear Boy.” Thomas thrust his hands around his father’s neck and said, “I love you too, Papa.”
After a few moments of silence, Thomas could sense his father’s sorrow, so he gently asked, “What’s wrong, Papa?” Mr. O’Brien, being unable to keep the truth from him any longer, told Thomas about the fire and how everything in the shop had been destroyed. Mr. O’Brien looked into his son’s eyes and confessed that he did not leave the coin under his pillow. He stroked Thomas’s hair and said, “We have nothing left.” Thomas, with all the innocence and faith of a child said, “Yes we do, Papa!” And lifting his hand, filled only with the coin, said, “We have this! You can have my coin, Papa.” Mr. O’Brien, so blessed by his son’s offering, embraced the young boy and wept all the more. Still standing on the window seal, Lily watched in awe at the sight of such love. The sorrow that had led her to the window seal was quickly replaced with the warmth of love and hope.
The coin Lily left under Thomas’s pillow was not just any coin, but a silver dollar, whose worth was not in the face value of the coin, but in the silver the coin contained. With the help of that silver coin, Mr. O’Brien was able to start from scratch, and within a year things were back to normal again. Eventually, he was able to repay his son for the coin he so graciously offered, though the love and faith that came with the offering could never be repaid.
Thomas and his father would often question who left the coin under his pillow, but Thomas’s grandmother insisted it was a fairy, who came to them when they were most in need. Being unable to provide no other logical explanation, the O’Briens’ forever referred to the generous stranger as the Tooth Fairy.
As word of Thomas’s miracle spread, children from all over the ghetto began leaving their teeth under their pillows hoping for a miracle. Like Thomas, coins for children and families in need would just appear, not in the flower that birthed Lily, but in the little magical satchel she carried. The dust she left behind became known as fairy dust and was the same dust that surrounded her on her first night in our world. The fairy dust would fall from her wings as they flapped. Lily, the first tooth fairy, took care of the children in the Irish ghetto, bringing miracles and magic when it was needed most.
As the number of children in need grew, Lily could not take care of all the children on her own. Eventually, new fairies started to bloom. Each new fairy bloomed when the need of a child was greatest. With each bloom, Lily could sense the new fairy’s presence. Lily’s wings, through no power of her own, would take her to wherever the new fairy bloomed. Like Lily, each tooth fairy came into the world because of one specific child and also like Lily, the newly bloomed fairy’s wings would take the fairy exactly where their first child lived. Lily was there with each one, explaining and helping the new fairies understand their role to human children. Eventually, Lily created a world of fairies that she charged with looking after the world’s children, from the loss of their first tooth to their very last. And that is the story of the world’s first tooth fairy!
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