'I keep thinking about that seasoned fried chicken … I'm sorry': A 93-year-old father's hesitant call moves his daughter — and a nation

"Is this my youngest? You know that seasoned fried chicken you brought me last time — I keep thinking about it, so I called. I tried to hold back, but I just can't stop thinking about it. I'm sorry."

A 93-year-old father's halting request for seasoned chicken left his daughter in tears. The story that began with that phone call has since drawn a warm response from a chicken franchise — and is set to become a neighborhood seasoned-chicken party.

A post about the father's story, shared by a user identified only as A on the social platform Threads on Wednesday, has drawn more than 1.26 million views and moved countless readers.

The story goes like this: A's father, 93, who lives alone in the countryside, called her around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday to say he had been craving the seasoned fried chicken she had brought him before. When A told him, "Dad, I'll order it for you right away — just wait 30 minutes," he replied, "I'm sorry."

A said she wept as she placed the order. "What does it say that my 93-year-old father had to hesitate so long before making that call?" she wrote. "He's always been such a proud, unbending man — he never asks for anything. But when he said he was sorry and that he just kept thinking about the chicken, I couldn't hold back my tears."

A and her siblings take turns visiting their father at the family home in the countryside every week without fail, she said.

Their father had recently fallen and been struggling with a sore leg and a poor appetite, prompting the six siblings to bring him a variety of foods — and it was then that he found himself thinking about the seasoned chicken from one particular franchise.

The delivery worker readily agreed to A's request to bring the order all the way inside to the living room for her father, whose leg was giving him trouble, and later called A to confirm the delivery.

"I watched on the home camera as the delivery person told my father in a loud voice, 'Your daughter sent two whole chickens,'" A wrote, expressing her gratitude.

The story spread across social media and online communities, racking up 1.26 million views and more than 35,000 likes as of Tuesday.

Then the franchise stepped in.

Chicken franchise Pericana posted a comment directly on A's Threads post on Monday, writing: "When we thought about your father — who must have given so much to his family his whole life — hesitating for so long before calling just because he wanted a piece of chicken, it moved us deeply. We would like to send a small token so that next time the craving strikes, he can enjoy it without a second thought."

According to A, Pericana said it would mail her chicken coupons.

A decided not to keep the coupons for her father alone. She plans to travel to the family home with her eldest sister this weekend and share seasoned chicken with the elderly neighbors living nearby.

"There are a few households near our family home with elderly residents," A said Tuesday. "Pericana said they would send coupons, so I'm planning to use them to buy seasoned chicken and bring one to each of them on Saturday."

"It'll be a Pericana seasoned-chicken party for everyone," she added. "And for our father, we'll keep bringing it until all six of us kids get told to stop."

"My 93-year-old father lives the same quiet day after day, so the thought of him being so delighted by this big event makes me so happy," she said, again thanking everyone at Pericana.