Five months into her pregnancy, a San Diego woman posted an ultrasound photo of her unborn child on her social media account. Soon messages began pouring in. While some congratulated her, others noticed an angel who appeared to be giving the baby a kiss. While going through the comment section, Shantel Carrillo stumbled across the latter. “It took my breath away. It really did,” she told Inside Edition.

And on taking a closer look at the image she realized that it wasn’t just any angel gracing the photo but her deceased father. “It was honestly like a punch in the chest, like, how awesome it was to see that,” she said, adding, “It’s nice to look at and it’s a great story to tell,” noted Carrillo, who immediately got a hold of her dad’s old photograph with her first daughter.

In the picture, he was looking down at the baby girl and when Carrillo closely compared it with the ultrasound image, the resemblance, she said, was uncanny. “It has his nose, his little chubby cheeks, his little double chin, and my dad wore a hat like all the time. It looks like the bill of his hat and his lips are just touching hers so perfectly,” she told Fox5.

Carrillo’s father tragically passed away in 2016 after suffering a heart attack at 54. But his daughter now believes that his soul is still alive, protecting his family. When asked if she believes it’s her father in the image, she said, “I can’t really think of it as any other way, if you knew my dad he loved to be the center of attention. Makes me feel like he is watching over my new daughter…it’s just a beautiful thing.”

Carrillo feels that her dad would have been extremely thrilled about her second pregnancy if he was alive. Judging by the photo, it looks like he is beyond ecstatic as she made an effort to be a part of the event. “I think my dad would just be over the moon about it, so I feel like he’s including himself in this someway, somehow,” she shared.

Her baby was due just a few days before her father’s birthday and this reinforces her theory that the angel in the picture was none other than her loving dad, who will continue to look over her family. Although he is no longer in this world, Carrillo now has something tangible to make her feel that her dad is not too far away.