A woman who was kicked out by her rich father at sixteen for taking up with a poor man ends up living on the streets with her four children after her husband died.
Steve Walton was far from thrilled when his butler told him that Pastor Morris was waiting to see him. He was tired after a long flight from Singapore and in no mood for the man’s lectures or pleas for support for the community.
He had the pastor shown in and waved an impatient hand at his greeting. “Get on with it, man!” he snapped. “What is it that you want this time?”
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“Mr. Walton, I saw Susan,” the pastor said quietly, and Steve’s heart nearly stopped. His only daughter had left his house nearly fifteen years before, never to be seen again…
“Susan?” Steve cried anxiously. “Where? When? How is she?”
“I was in Los Angeles, helping out a friend who has a mission among the homeless and that’s where I saw her,” the pastor said.
“She was a volunteer? Did you tell her I’ve been looking for her?” asked Steve.
“No,” Pastor Morris said gently. “She wasn’t a volunteer, Mr. Walton. She’s homeless. She and her children are living in a car.”
Steve found himself so dizzy he had to sit down. “Homeless? My Susan? Children?” he gasped.
“I’m afraid so,” the pastor said. “And she wouldn’t even listen to me when I told her to come home.”
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“But why?” asked Steve angrily. “She’s not with that loser anymore, is she?”
“Her husband passed away three years ago, Mr. Walton,” the pastor explained. “And she told me she wouldn’t bring her children into a house where their father is despised.”
Steve Walton felt that old familiar wave of rage sweep through him. Fifteen years later, Susan was still defying him! He remembered the scene in his study, and Susan’s steady eyes looking into his as he ranted.
“Pregnant at sixteen, and by the GARDNER!” he’d screamed. “Well, we are going to have THAT taken care of, and HE’S fired! You will never see that man again!”
“THAT is my baby, daddy,” Susan had said in a tremulous voice. “And HE is the man I love. I’m going to marry him.”
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“You marry that man and you’re on your own, Susan, do you hear?” Steve shouted furiously. “No more money, nothing! You marry him and you get out of my house!”
Susan had looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I love you, daddy,” she’d said. Then she turned around and walked away. Even though Steve had set detectives to find her, no one had been able to trace her.
“How many children?” he asked Pastor Morris.
“Four,” the pastor said. “Three girls and a boy. Beautiful children.”
Steve picked up his phone and spat out orders for his plane to be readied. “Pastor, would you come with me to Los Angeles, take me to my little girl?” he asked quietly.
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The pastor nodded, and within two hours, the two men were on board Steve’s private jet winging their way south. There was a limo waiting for them, and the pastor directed them to a parking lot outside a large mall.
At the furthest end of the lot, a pickup truck was parked, with a tent set up at the back. Pastor Morris had told Steve that when Susan’s husband died in a work accident, the insurance company had refused to pay out and the bank foreclosed on the mortgage.
Susan had piled the children and their few belongings into the old pickup. She worked at the mall as a cleaner. She and the children used the mall’s facilities and bought whatever was leftover at the restaurants at the end of the night.
Still, she had managed to keep the four children fed, clean, and in school. As the two men approached the truck, they heard cheerful voices and laughter. Then two children tumbled out of the back.
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The biggest girl, about fourteen, was laughing as she tickled a boy of about seven. The children stopped and gaped at Steve and Pastor Morris. “Mom!” the girl yelled. “That old preacher friend of yours is here!”
A well-remembered voice asked from inside the tent, “Preacher Morris?” Then Susan climbed out and Steve could see the shock in her face when she saw him standing next to the pastor.
“Daddy?” she asked, and her eyes filled with tears.
Steve was shocked. His daughter was barely thirty-one, but she looked much older. Her face was worn and lined with worry and suffering, her hands coarsened by hard work.
“Susan,” Steve cried. “Look at you! Look at what HE did to my princess! I wanted so much for you! And you married that loser! What could he give you? Poverty?”
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Susan shook her head and said, “He loved me, daddy, and he gave me 4 beautiful children. He died, and I had nowhere to go, but I’ve done what I can for my children. I will always love the father of my children, daddy, just like I’ve always loved you.”
Steve found that he had tears running down his face. “Forgive me, Susan,” he sobbed. “Please forgive me. Come home, I want you all to come home with me. Let me help you take care of the children!”
Steve found himself holding his weeping daughter and knew that everything was going to be alright. Susan introduced him to his three granddaughters, then she placed her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “And this,” she smiled, “is little Stevie!”
“You named him after me?” Steve asked, astounded. “After what I did?”
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“I love you, daddy,” she said softly. “Don’t you know that?”
That afternoon, they all flew home to Texas. It was the beginning of a better life for all of them.
What can we learn from this story?
- Love and accept your children unconditionally. Steve was furious with Susan for loving a poor man and made the biggest mistake of his life by losing his daughter.
- Don’t judge people for their wealth or influence. Steve hated his son-in-law because he was poor, but he was a loving husband to Susan and a dedicated dad.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a 60-year-old man who is shocked when a perfect stranger walks up to him in a restaurant and calls him a cheater.
This account is inspired by our reader’s story and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life.
Boy Promises to Water Old Lady’s Plants after She Moves to Nursing Home, Finds Note Left in Soil – Story of the Day
When Daniel saw his older neighbor fighting with her son over her plants, he offered to help and volunteered to water her garden for her. Sometime later, he found a note buried in the soil that changed everything in the most surprising way.
“I can’t believe you would ask that of me! I can’t come here every day to water your plants! If you gave me the house, I would do it!” Daniel heard someone shouting and stopped his bike in front of a pretty little house with a lovely garden. He knew that an older woman, Mrs. Carrino, lived there, but he had never talked to her, and he had no idea who was yelling.
Suddenly, Daniel saw a man exiting the house, still yelling, and the older woman was following him behind. “Arnold, I asked you to come and help me, and all you’ve talked about is getting this house! Are you crazy? Do you want me to die so you can have my house?”
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Daniel’s eyebrows went up, and he thought he should leave, but he was rooted in place.
Suddenly, the sound of metal crashing against each other made him flinch. “What the –”
“You’re being a drama queen, mother. This house will go to me anyway. I can’t believe you’re giving me this attitude when I came to help you move!”
“Leave now if that’s how you’re going to act!” Mrs. Carrino stated, which made Arnold stomp to his car and drive off in a huff. They were so engrossed in their fight that they didn’t even notice Daniel standing there with his bike.
Finally, the older woman saw him. “Oh, boy. What are you doing here? Do I know you?” she asked.
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“I live two houses down the street. I’m Daniel, Caroline’s son,” he stated, pointing back to his house. “I’m sorry, but I was biking around and heard the yelling. I got worried. Are you alright, Mrs. Carrino?”
“Oh, I recognize you now, and it’s so nice that you know my name. Don’t worry about that. It was just my son being a brat,” she explained.
“Why?”
“Well… I’m moving to a nursing home, and I asked him to come and help me. But he only came here to ask if I could give him the house. He said he was going to move in here. But I know he’s just going to sell it because he doesn’t value investment like I do. I worked hard to earn this place, and as long as I’m alive, I’m not selling it,” Mrs. Carrino revealed. “But then he made a scene after I asked him to water my plants. And I believe you saw the rest of the fight.”
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“I can do that,” Daniel said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Do what?”
“Water your plants.”
“I can’t pay you, dear,” Mrs. Carrino said, her eyes apologetic.
“I know. But I live so close. It’s not a problem,” Daniel insisted, and the older woman smiled brightly at him.
A few days later, Mrs. Carrino moved to a nearby nursing home in Florida, and Daniel kept his promise. He visited her home almost every day to water her plants and was happy to do so. Soon enough, he started to love gardening and would visit Mrs. Carrino to ask about adding some new plants.
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“Of course! And make sure to watch out for the soil,” she said, winking at him, although Daniel had no idea why she was acting cheeky.
Daniel began buying and adding new plants to the garden, thinking it would be great to start a gardening company in the future so his family wouldn’t have to struggle so much. His mother worked two jobs on the weekdays and one on weekends to keep him and his siblings fed and to pay rent. But it was not enough.
He only had a bike because he had found an old one and had taken side gigs to repair it. But gardening gave him an escape from all those money worries, and he felt terrific after planting something new and seeing how it started to grow. He never expected what he would find in the garden one day.
He had gotten some azaleas, which he read thrived in the Florida weather, and had started digging with a tiny shovel on a specific spot of the grass. Suddenly, the sound of metal crashing against each other made him flinch. “What the –”
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Dropping the shovel, he used his hands to unearth a mason jar with a metal top and found a note inside.
“Dear Daniel! Thank you for your help, this house is now yours! Go inside and find all the paperwork. You and your family can move in whenever you want!”
Daniel couldn’t believe his eyes, but he rushed inside, using the key Mrs. Carrino left him. On the kitchen counter, he saw the title to the house. Although he couldn’t understand what most of it said, he saw his name at the bottom.
Still in shock, he called Mrs. Carrino, who confirmed everything. “You’re going to need to sign it to complete the transfer. But I wanted you to find the note first!” Mrs. Carrino said.
His mother couldn’t believe it. They could move into the house and stop paying rent. There was no mortgage either, which would help his family immensely. They were so grateful for the older woman’s gift that his mother and other siblings started visiting her often, thinking of her as a grandmother.
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But during their move, Daniel discovered something even more curious. In Mrs. Carrino’s old room, there was another note. It was the same as the one he had found, but instead, it said “Arnold.” The older woman was actually planning to give her son the house if he helped her with her plants. But she changed her mind, and Daniel received a huge present just for being kind.
It was a lesson he would never forget.
What can we learn from this story?
- Aspire to be someone like Daniel, not Arnold. Arnold pretended to want to help his mother, but he only wanted her house. Meanwhile, Daniel did it out of the goodness of his heart.
- You should never feel entitled to an inheritance. While most parents like giving their children the results of their hard work, children should never feel entitled to it. Arnold assumed he was getting his mother’s house but he was wrong.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a boy who helped an older woman carry her groceries and received money later.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life.
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