When my daughter Cinthy ran into the house, screaming about something in our shed, I went to investigate and called my husband immediately for help. What I discovered hiding inside changed our lives forever, leading us down a path filled with shocking revelations and unexpected new bonds.
I left work in a hurry, eager to pick up Cinthy from Linda’s place. Linda had been our nanny ever since Cinthy was a baby. She couldn’t have children of her own, so she poured all her love into caring for Cinthy.
When I arrived, Linda was playing chess with Cinthy, delighting in her skillful gameplay.
A woman and young girl paying chess | Source: Pexels
“Hi, Clara,” Linda greeted me with a warm smile. “Cinthy’s been a delight, as always.”
“Thanks, Linda. Ready to go home, sweetheart?” I asked Cinthy.
“Yeah, Mommy!” Cinthy chirped, grabbing her sling bag.
Little girl with her bag | Source: Pexels
As we walked home, Cinthy chattered about her day at school. Once we arrived, I set her to play outside while I started making dinner.
I was chopping vegetables when I heard a piercing scream. Cinthy burst through the kitchen door, eyes wide with terror.
“Mommy! There’s something in the shed!”
A woman preparing a meal | Source: Pexels
I dropped the knife and crouched down to her level. “What did you see, honey?”
“I… I don’t know. Something moved in there.”
I glanced outside, then back at Cinthy. “Stay here,” I instructed firmly. I grabbed my phone and headed to the shed, my heart pounding.
The shed was old and creaky. I opened the door slowly, peering into the dim light. The air smelled musty, like old wood and dirt.
A hand opening a shed door | Source: Pexels
As I stepped inside, I noticed the cellar hatch closing. My first reaction was that it must be a burglar intent on stealing the garden tools and whatever else we had stored in there.
“Hello?” I called out. “Who’s there?”
No answer. I strained to hear any sounds but there was only silence. My mind whirled with possibilities. I quickly locked the shed door from the outside and ran back to the house.
A woman inside a garden shed | Source: Freepik
I dialed my husband, James, who was away on a business trip. He picked up immediately.
“Clara? What’s wrong?”
“I think there’s someone robbing our shed, James! They ducked down into the cellar when I went in to investigate. I locked the door to the shed, what should I do now?”
“Clara, call the cops right away. Don’t go near there. Be careful. I’ll catch the next flight home, but call me back as soon as the police get there.”
A woman looks at her cell phone | Source: Pexels
I hung up and dialed 911. “Hello, I think someone has broken into my garden shed at 122 Vine. I need a patrol car to come immediately!”
The operator assured me help was on the way. I turned to Cinthy, who was clinging to my leg. “It’s okay, sweetie. The police are coming.”
Minutes later, two officers arrived. I led them to the shed and unlocked the door. They entered cautiously, flashlights sweeping the darkness. One of them lifted the cellar hatch and shone her light down.
A male and female police officer | Source: Pexels
Minutes later, two officers arrived. I led them to the shed and unlocked the door. They entered cautiously, flashlights sweeping the darkness.
“Ma’am, please stay back. We need to check this out,” one officer said, his hand hovering over his holster. “If it’s a burglar, they might be armed and dangerous.”
They moved towards the cellar hatch, one of them lifting it slowly. “Ready?” he asked his partner.
“Ready,” she replied, her flashlight steady.
A bed in a basement room | Source: Pexels
The beam of light cut through the darkness, and the officer froze. “Wait, they’re just kids,” she said, her voice full of surprise. “It’s okay, kids. We’re here to help you.”
Two boys, no older than twelve, emerged. They were dirty and thin, their eyes wide with fear. I noticed makeshift beds and empty cans of beans in the cellar. They had been living there, surviving on what little they could find.
“Please don’t send us back,” one of them pleaded. “We can’t go back to that place.”
A police officer addresses a young boy | Source: Pexels
The officer knelt down. “What are your names?”
“Joe,” the boy replied. “And this is my twin brother, Stan.”
Looking at the two boys, my heart ached. “Why were you hiding in our shed?”
Joe looked at Stan before speaking. “We ran away from the home. The people there are mean to us.”
A police officer taking notes | Source: Pexels
I looked at the officers. “What will happen to them now?”
“We’ll take them to the station,” one said. “We need to contact this home and get them checked out.”
“Can I come with them?” I asked.
The officer hesitated, then nodded. “Alright, but we need to get them to the hospital first.”
A medical professional | Source: Pexels
I turned to the boys. “I’ll stay with you, okay?”
Joe nodded, tears brimming in his eyes. “Thank you.”
As we walked to the police car, Cinthy tugged at my sleeve. “Mommy, can they stay with us?”
I looked at the officers. “Is that possible?”
“We’ll see,” one replied. “For now, let’s get them the help they need.”
An old house | Source: Pexels
At the hospital, the boys were checked by doctors. They were malnourished but otherwise fine. I stayed with them, sitting in the waiting room and holding their hands.
The police found the so-called “home” the boys described, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that sending them back there was a bad idea.
The next day, I took Cinthy to school and then drove to the home. The building was cold and unwelcoming. The director, Adam, greeted me with a forced smile.
“Mrs. Thompson, I understand you found two of our wards,” he said.
A sinister-looking man | Source: Pexels
“Yes, Joe and Stan. They said they ran away because of mistreatment.”
His smile faltered. “They’re troubled boys. They don’t adjust well.”
“Is that so?” I replied. “I’d like to see where they’ve been living.”
He hesitated, then led me through dimly lit hallways. The rooms were crowded with un-made beds and the place had a generally depressed air about it. I felt a surge of anger.
Depressing looking room | Source: Freepik
Back at home, I discussed everything with Linda and her husband, Peter. “Those boys can’t stay there,” I said. “We have to do something.”
Linda nodded, her eyes teary. “Peter and I have been talking. We want to foster them. But we don’t have much.”
“Whatever you need, we’ll help,” I promised.
The next few weeks were a blur of paperwork and meetings. We faced resistance from Adam, who insisted the boys were better off at the “home.”
A pair of blond boys | Source: Pexels
But we were determined. Cinthy and I visited Joe and Stan regularly, bringing them homemade meals and spending time with them.
One evening, while we were there, I overheard Adam arguing with a social worker. “We’re under investigation, but those kids are lying!”
I pulled the social worker aside. “What’s happening?”
She sighed. “We’ve had reports of neglect. We’re trying to find new homes for all the children here.”
Two women talking | Source: Freepik
Then, Joe was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. This was the last straw. I contacted a lawyer and threatened Adam with legal action and media exposure.
As the investigation continued, more about the sinister operations of the home came to light. Adam and his wife, Julia, ran the place as an income generation scheme. They fostered as many children as they could, claiming government grants, but kept most of the money for themselves.
A young boy has his temperature measured | Source: Pexels
I confronted Adam and Julia one last time. “How could you do this to these kids?”
Julia sneered. “They’re just orphans. No one cares.”
“Well, I care. And I’ll make sure everyone knows what you’ve done.”
With the help of the lawyer and the social worker, we ensured Joe and Stan were removed from that awful place. The news of the home’s neglect spread, and other children were rescued and placed in better care.
Disheveled children | Source: Pexels
Linda and Peter finally welcomed Joe and Stan into their home. They were safe, loved, and starting to heal. I continued to support them, knowing this was just the beginning of a new chapter for all of us.
One evening, I visited Linda and Peter’s house. The boys were settling in nicely, their faces brighter and more hopeful. Cinthy, Joe, and Stan were playing together in the living room.
Children playing chess together | Source: Pexels
At dinner, we all sat around the table, sharing stories and laughter. As we ate, I noticed Joe pushing his food around on his plate, a small grin forming on his face.
“Everything okay, Joe?” I asked.
He looked up, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “I was just wondering… do you have any more of those canned beans? You know, the ones from the shed?”
A family enjoying a meal together | Source: Pexels
We all laughed, the tension easing from the room. It was the first time I’d seen him joke about their ordeal.
“I think we can find something a little better than canned beans,” Peter said, chuckling.
Joe nodded, his grin widening. “Just checking.”
After dinner, we gathered in the living room. I looked at Joe and Stan, their faces glowing with the warmth of family.
A boy at a family dinner table | Source: Pexels
“You have a family now,” I told them. “A real family who loves you and will take care of you.”
Joe’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, Clara. For everything.”
“No need to thank me. Just be happy and safe,” I replied, my heart swelling with emotion.
As I watched them interact, I felt a sense of peace. These boys had been through so much, but they were resilient. With the love and support of Linda, Peter, and all of us, they had a chance to build a better future.
“There’s not one piece that I didn’t go out and buy or that I can’t tell you a story about.”
In any case, sir, my spouse used to tell me that I had a behind capable of raising the dead from their graves. I wish to avoid taking any chances.
Isn’t that funny?
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Millionaires are Jamie Lee Curtis and her spouse Christopher Guest. However, for the past 30 years, the famous couple has made the decision to reside in the same stunning home.
In December 2022, Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary. Throughout their marriage, they have resided in the same home. Annie and Ruby, their children, grew up in the beautiful house.
Jamie Lee Curtis is a Hollywood royalty, descended from actor Tony Curtis and actress Janet Leigh. She developed a prosperous acting career by following in their footsteps and starring in beloved films like “Halloween” and “Freaky Friday.”
Curtis has received recognition for her exceptional acting abilities throughout her career. She was previously nominated for a Golden Globe for the sitcom “Anything But Love.” She was raised in Los Angeles, first as an adult and subsequently with her parents.
Curtis is one of the few well-known writers who has won over critics and book lovers in addition to her acting profession. She became well-known for writing children’s books when she released “When I Was Little: A Four-Year-Old’s Memoir of Her Youth” in 1993.
Books that her kids inspired
Actor-Filmmaker Christopher Guest is credited by Curtis with inspiring her two children. The basis for her second novel, “Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born,” which was released in 1996, came from the adoption of their oldest child, Annie.
She co-wrote the New York Times best-selling book “Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods That Make My Day” two years later. She wrote “Is There Really a Human Race?” in 2006, drawing inspiration from Ruby, her adoptive daughter.
HER MATERNITY WITH CHRISTIPH GUEST
Since 1984, Curtis and her spouse have been joined in marriage. She has expressed her gratitude to the man countless times, and she is thrilled to spend the rest of her life with him. On their 36th anniversary of marriage, she wrote:
“My hand is in his.” Both then and now. Our children, families, and friends were the connections in our emotional chain, guiding us through both success and failure.
Curtis previously talked candidly about the instant she realized she would marry Guest. The actress made it real when she saw his photo in a Rolling Stone publication in 1984, right before the premiere of “This Is Spinal Tap.”
The actress claimed that she gestured to a picture of Guest sporting a plaid shirt. She pointed at him and informed her companion that she would marry that man even though she had never seen him before.
Curtis decided to take a chance and called Guest’s agent the very following day. If Guest was interested, she asked him to phone her and gave him his number.
Sadly, he never phoned, and she continued living her life and dating other men. She drove to Hugo’s restaurant in West Hollywood after they broke up. She looked up there and noticed Guest three tables away.
She waved back to Guest when he had finished waving. He raised his hand and gave a shrug as he stood up to go. He phoned her the very next day, and they went on their first date a few days later.
After a few months, Guest took a plane to New York City to record “Saturday Night Live” for a whole year. They were totally enamored with one another at the time, and they haven’t looked back.
The 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival house that Curtis entered in 1992 would end up being her first residence. Regarding the interior design of the home, the actress said, “There’s not one piece that I didn’t go out and buy or that I can’t tell you a story about,” acknowledging that at the time she thought she could make any place beautiful.
For Guest, however, it was not. Curtis revealed that he would frequently display disdain in his facial expressions when house hunting. But he was different for this particular property.
He began examining the eucalyptus trees around the house and its terracotta roof tiles before concluding that they ought to buy it. He would subsequently say that the home’s park-like environment had pleased him.
Despite being built in 1929, the house had not been modified when the previous owners moved in. As a result, they enlisted Jan McFarland Cox’s assistance to revitalize the house, which is now light and spacious.
The house is filled with traces of Curtis’s two children. She combined aspects of a more modern zen design with those of an ancient traditional Mediterranean home.
Curtis and Guest’s belief that fusing old and new is an integral part of who they are is reflected in the home. The home serves as an inspiration for the children’s book author to produce works of art.
The couple worked with architect Michael B. Lehrer and his wife Mia on renovations and landscape design while they were renovating the home before moving in. Before remodeling the master bedroom and bathroom, they started on adding bedrooms for their kids.
After remodeling the basement level, Lehrer opened up the kitchen to create a family area—a location that Curtis refers to as “the emotional center of the house.” She asked Cox to design interiors that highlighted the Mediterranean roots of the home.
Curtis and Guest are positive that they have brought happiness into the house. “I think it’s like anything: it’s a work in progress,” a guest once said. This house will continue to exist.
It’s true that Curtis uses wall art, hanging fabric dividers, and kitchen towels to hang inspirational sayings to keep the home lively. Timeless hardwood furnishings that maintain the Mediterranean aesthetic perfectly complement their home’s light and airy ambiance.
Curtis and Guest created a devoted household, but they also shared a profound understanding of what it meant to be “home” with one another. When I pull up and see that you are home, I feel protected, the actress once wrote a song for her husband.
She feels that the song’s words, despite their simplicity, perfectly capture what it means to be in a long marriage. She values the security that comes from knowing her spouse is home and that she is not by herself.
Now that they are empty nesters, Curtis and Guest take solace in their time spent together. Their daughter Ruby changed from her prior identity as Thomas, and their oldest daughter Annie is now married.
At the age of 25, Ruby, the second of Curtis’s two children with Guest, made the decision to transition. With Ruby teaching her to reject the notion that gender is fixed, Curtis is ecstatic for her children.
Ruby married in 2022 in the same manner that Annie is already married. Curtis was pleased to announce that she presided over her daughter’s wedding.
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