An 80-year-old woman unexpectedly found her late mother’s treasured pendant in an antique store. She decided to buy it but was interrupted by a stranger offering to pay double its price. She burst into tears after recognizing who it was.
80-year-old Samantha was a regular shopper at the thrift store. She loved buying antique showpieces and furniture to adorn the little home she lived in alone.
One day, she went shopping, assuming it would be just an ordinary day at the flea market.
“I hope I find a nice shelf to go under Paul’s photo. The old one is broken,” she mumbled.
Paul was her late husband, who had died just a year after their wedding in 1963. Since then, Samantha refused to move on and chose to live with his memories, and his photo was one among her treasured items…
“Hello there, how can I help you, Mrs. Drake?” the vendor in the furniture store asked.
“Well, I want a nice shelf. Not a grand one, but something small with elegant cuts and durable wood.”
“Alright! Why don’t you sit down while I bring a few pieces?”
“Why would you want to buy my mom’s pendant?” Samantha asked the stranger who offered to pay double the price for it.
Samantha sat in the store, looking around. Moments later, the antique shop across the road opposite the furniture store drew her attention.
“I’ll be back in a bit. I’ll just go check out the store across for a candle stand,” she said.
“Alright, Mrs. Drake. I’ll be ready with the shelves by then.”
Shortly after Samantha entered the antique shop, she was startled by what she saw there.
“Oh my God! This can’t be it. Where did you get this?” she asked, her eyes gleaming with tears as she pointed to a classic red pendant on the mannequin.
“Hey, Mrs. Drake! Did you mean this one?” The seller brought down the beautiful chain with the pendant from the display.
“Yes, please…can I see it?”
“Sure, here you go… That’s $40, but I’ll give it to you for $5 less…” The vendor smiled.
Samantha flipped the pendant several times and could no longer hold back her tears.
“I found it…This belonged to my mother!” she exclaimed, tears endlessly streaming down her face. “From where did you get it?”
“I don’t know, but my dad told me that someone sold it to him several years ago… It had not gone on display because my dad kept it at home. After he died last year, I cleared the attic and found it there. So I put it up here for sale.”
Samantha could not believe her eyes. “I’m getting it!” she said, and just as she dug her bag for the money, she heard someone enter, followed by a loud voice:
“I’ll pay double its price…Please give it to me…I want it at any cost!”
Samantha was startled. She turned around, only to gasp in astonishment after seeing a woman who looked like her.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe this! Am I looking at myself in the mirror?” panted the other woman.
“Oh, dear! What’s happening? And how come you look exactly like me?” shrieked Samantha.
The two women stared at each other for quite some time, unable to fathom their uncanny resemblance.
“Wha—What’s your name? I’m Samantha…And you?”
“I’m Doris!”
“And why would you want to buy my mom’s pendant?”
“Your mom’s pendant?”
“Yes, this is my mom Dorothy’s pendant… We became very poor after my dad left my mom, so she sold everything we had to make ends meet, and this pendant was among the heirlooms she sold. She sold it to a man, but I don’t know how it reached here.”
“So that makes you my sister?!” Doris shrieked, hugging a confused Samantha, who could not understand what was happening.
“Sister??? What do you mean?” she exclaimed, pushing Doris back for an explanation.
“Let me show you,” replied Doris, who took out an old, torn photo of Dorothy wearing the pendant with a little girl on her lap.
“Jesus Christ! This is unbelievable! This is my mother, and this is me with her,” exclaimed Samantha.
“No, that’s not you…THAT’S ME! We’re twins!” replied Doris, stunning Samantha.
“What? How could that be? Oh my God…I never knew I had a sister!” cried Samantha.
As it turned out, Doris was indeed Samantha’s twin. Their parents, Dorothy and Michael, went through a rough patch in their marriage and divorced when Samantha and Doris were just a year old. They parted ways, each taking one child to raise independently.
Samantha was raised by Dorothy, while Doris was taken by her dad. They were separated right from childhood and never got a chance to see each other again.
“….And when my granny died 40 years ago, she revealed the secret when I asked her about the other half of this torn photo,” cried Doris.
“Dad had passed a year before her, so I could not confront him. He never left anything else of you that could help me track you. I lost my husband several years ago and have no children. I kept looking for you but in vain… I think it was God’s will for us to meet like this today, thanks to mom’s pendant!”
“I came here to buy a candle stand, and right now, I am baffled!” Samantha cried like a kid in Doris’s arms. “You can have the pendant! I had seen mom wear it, but you never got a chance to even be with her. It should belong to you now!”
Doris was touched and moved to tears. Samantha bought the pendant and placed it around Doris’s neck.
“You remind me of our mother! I’m glad to meet you. Let’s go home!” she said as an excited antique store owner saw the silhouette of Samantha and Doris exit his store, holding each other!
What can we learn from this story?
You may never know about the history an old piece of artifact might have. When Samantha saw the pendant in the antique store, she immediately recognized it as her late mother’s. She would soon learn that the pendant would reunite her with the twin sister she never knew.
Sometimes, children suffer fateful consequences from the decisions their parents make. After their divorce, Michael and Dorothy separated their twin daughters, each taking one. The sisters never knew about each other for several decades until they accidentally met at the antique store and recognized each other.
Spoiled Son Demands Money For Doing His Chores
A teenage boy demands that his parents pay him for doing his household chores and learns a painful lesson.
Wesley pushed his plate away. “I’m sick of meatloaf,” he complained. “Can’t you make anything else?” he asked his mother.
His mom looked at him indignantly. “We had roast chicken yesterday, hamburgers the day before, fish on Friday…”
Wesley sniffed derisively. “Yeah, yeah…Whatever!” and got up from the table.
“Wesley,” said his mother. “Please rinse your plate and put it in the dishwasher.”
“Why should I?” asked Wesley with typical teen arrogance. “I’m not your slave!”
Price list for chores | Source: AmoMedia.com
“My slave?” gasped his mother, “How can helping out make you my slave?”
“You don’t pay me, do you?” asked Wesley triumphantly. “Work without pay is slavery!”
Wesley’s dad frowned. “We support you, son,” he pointed out. “We house you, feed you, clothe you, and educate you…”
“That’s your duty and my right!” said Wesley. “And the law says you have to do it too, but I don’t have to do a thing!”
Wesley’s mom changed color. “I see! So we have duties and you have rights? Is that what you believe? What about your duty to help, to do your chores?”
“I’m not your slave,” repeated Wesley arrogantly. “If you want me to do things around here, you’d better pay me!”
A rebellious teen | Source: Pexels
Wesley’s mom jumped up but his father laid a gently restraining hand on her arm. “Pay you?” asked the father calmly. “And how much would you want for doing your chores?”
Wesley smiled triumphantly. “I’ve thought about that. For taking out the trash, $1, for washing dishes, $2, walking the dog, $4, cleaning my room, $5, and for cleaning the yard and mowing the lawn, $10. And you’re lucky I’m not demanding back pay.”
“Never!” cried Wesley’s mom angrily, but his father smiled calmly.
“I agree, Wesley. We will pay you for your work according to your demands. From now on you are a man, and we will treat you as such.”
Wesley puffed out his chest. “It’s about time you showed me some respect!” he crowed, and his mother opened her mouth to utter an angry retort. Once again Wesley’s dad smiled sweetly and restrained her.
Angry mother | Source: Unsplash
“Well, son, we start tomorrow, OK? I’ll put up a chart with your chores, and you write down what you’ve done on a daily basis. At the end of each week, say Friday afternoons, you get paid. What do you think?”
Wesley smiled happily. “That’s just perfect, dad!” Wesley walked out feeling on top of the world, without realizing he was about to have one of the worse weeks of his life.
A family works as a unit to make their collective lives better.
Wesley’s mom turned to his father. “Rick, how could you? He’s disrespectful, lazy, and greedy. He needs to learn,…”
Rick was smiling, and it wasn’t a nice smile. “Don’t worry, Martha, I have a plan, and our dear little boy is in for a very unpleasant experience. We’re going to teach him a lesson!”
The next day, Wesley walked into the house after football practice. It had been a long day at school and he was starving. “Hey mom!” he said. “What’s for dinner?”
Making a price list for his chores | Source: Pexels
“Turkey pot-pie with sweet potatoes and peas,” his mother said smiling sweetly.
“Cool!” cried Wesley. “I’m starving!” He saw that his dad had put up a chart on the wall and he immediately walked over and filled in walking the dog and cleaning his room. Later he would take out the trash.
That’s $9 already, though Wesley happily. I’m going to be rich! An hour later the scent of the food lured him down to the kitchen again where he found his mother and his father having dinner.
“Mom!” he cried indignantly. “You didn’t call me and I told you I was starving!”
Wesley’s mom smiled, and his father replied: “But Wesley, now that you are earning your own money, you will have to support yourself. If you want your mother to cook for you, you will have to pay her.”
“PAY HER?” screamed Wesley, “I’m not going to pay her!”
Walking the dog | Source: Unsplash
“Well, I’m afraid you’ll have to dip into your savings and order take away, then.” Wesley’s mother said still smiling.
“But…but…That’s not fair!” screamed Wesley and stormed upstairs. He ordered a pizza and it cost him $15 plus the delivery fee and the tip. Wesley worked out that he’d have to work three whole days to pay for that pizza. Being an independent man was expensive!
The next morning he came down for breakfast to find his mother making bacon and eggs and it smelled delicious. “Hi mom,” he said sweetly, “can I have my eggs over easy?”
“Sure, son!” she smiled. “That will be $6 for breakfast!”
“You’re charging me for breakfast?” cried Wesley angrily. “That’s not fair!”
But Wesley was in for another surprise. “Dad,” Wesley said, “our coach said we have to have new team jerseys and it will cost $69,99.”
Cleaning up his room | Source: Unsplash
“I see,” said his dad smiling. “But why are you telling me this?”
“Well, so you can give me the money!” said Wesley.
“But, Wesley,” his dad said, still smiling, “now that you’re earning money, you pay for your own expenses, and that includes clothes. I thought you knew that.”
“I don’t have that kind of money!” cried Wesley. “Where am I supposed to get $70?”
“Save it up from your what you earn, of course. It’s what we do!” dad said.
Wesley was stunned. Not only would he have to feed himself, but he’d also have to buy his own clothes? This wasn’t what he’d imagined when he’d demanded payment for his chores. “Well, OK,” he said. “Listen, dad, could you give me a ride to school? I’m a bit late…”
Nothing for dinner | Source: Unsplash
“Sure, son!” his dad smiled. “That will be $5.50.”
“You’re going to charge me for a ride to school?” Wesley gasped.
“Sure, after all, you’d pay a taxi, wouldn’t you?” his dad pointed out reasonably.
“But you’re my DAD!” cried Wesley. “And you’re charging me?”
“Oh Wesley, dear,” said his mother sweetly. “That reminds me! That will be $12.50 for washing and ironing your clothes.”
Wesley walked to school and was late. At lunchtime, he ate the cafeteria food with great gusto. He wondered when he’d taste his mother’s meatloaf again, or her mac and cheese, or her amazing Irish stew…
Boy runs out of money | Source: Unsplash
That night, Wesley came down at dinnertime looking despondent. His parents were having dinner and it smelled delicious. Wesley’s stomach rumbled. “Mom, dad?” he said quietly. “Can we talk?”
“Sure son,” said his father. “What’s on your mind?”
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry about that payment thing. I guess I never thought about everything you two do for me every day, and you never ask for anything in return.”
“We were hoping you’d realize that, Wesley. Everything we do for you, we do out of love, not obligation or duty,” his mother said.
“I know, mom, I’m so sorry,” Wesley whispered, and his eyes filled with tears.
Wesley’s dad got up and put his arms around him. “Son, in this family we do all we can to help each other, to make all our lives easier and better. That’s what being a family is all about, and we were hoping you’d understand that.”
Boy apologizes to his parents | Source: Pexels
Wesley’s mom gave him a hug too and said, “So how about some dinner? I made cottage pie and green beans — your favorite!”
That night, Wesley had one of the nicest evenings ever with his parents, and he learned one of the most important lessons: to appreciate all that his parents do for him and to do his part in helping his family.
What can we learn from this story?
1. Love doesn’t demand payment.
2. A family works as a unit to make their collective lives better.
Share this story with your friends. It might inspire people to share their own stories or to help someone else.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a spoiled rich girl who leaves her restaurant bill unpaid and learns a painful lesson.
This account is inspired by a subscriber’s story. All names have been changed to protect identities and ensure privacy. If you would like to share your story with us
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