Um homem pobre e idoso é inesperadamente recompensado pela gentileza que demonstrou a um estranho quando sai de casa uma manhã e encontra um carro esportivo novinho em folha em vez do antigo.
Gregory Smith, de 80 anos, estava em sua varanda da frente, estupefato. Ele se beliscou duas vezes para garantir que não estava sonhando e chamou sua esposa, Cynthia, enquanto olhava para o conteúdo do envelope em sua mão e então para o carro esportivo reluzente na frente de sua casa.
“Cynthia! Cynthia! Venha aqui rápido!” ele gritou, suas mãos tremendo de ansiedade ao ver o carro novo e o antigo desaparecidos.
“O que há de errado com você, Gregory?” Cynthia surgiu de dentro, secando as mãos em uma toalha e franzindo a testa. “Eu queimei a panqueca por sua causa! Se você não sabe, estávamos no nosso último pacote de mistura para panqueca! E você está parado aqui? Quando você está planejando ir ao mercado?”
O carro velho de Gregory tinha sumido. | Fonte: Pexels
Gregory acenou com a mão desdenhosamente. “Olhe para isso, Cynthia”, ele disse, mostrando a ela o envelope que havia encontrado na varanda da frente. “Havia chaves de carro dentro do envelope e nosso carro velho sumiu! Olhe ali”, ele acrescentou, apontando para fora, onde havia estacionado seu carro velho na noite passada. “É um carro novinho! Quem poderia ter feito isso? O que devo fazer agora?”
“E não há nenhum bilhete dentro ou algo que indique quem enviou isso?” Cynthia perguntou, confusa.
“Já verifiquei duas vezes o envelope. Não há nenhum! O que nós—”
Antes que Gregory pudesse terminar sua frase, a buzina de um carro o cortou. Quando ele olhou para fora da porta da frente, viu seu velho carro estacionado na frente de sua casa e um homem saindo dele.
Os olhos de Gregory lacrimejaram quando ele viu quem era o homem. “Oh meu Deus! Ele cumpriu sua promessa, Cynthia!” ele disse, virando-se para encará-la. Cynthia estava sorrindo como se soubesse que isso iria acontecer.
Cynthia era a parceira do homem no crime ao planejar a surpresa para Gregory. | Fonte: Pexels
O homem deu um abraço caloroso em Gregory. “Como você está, Gregory? Já faz um tempo, não é?”
“Jack? Oh, eu não acredito nisso… Eu estou muito bem, querido. Como você está? E por favor me diga que você não fez isso!” ele gritou, abraçando-o de volta.
“Eu tive que fazer isso, Gregory. Depois do que você fez por mim… quero dizer, quem demonstra tanta gentileza hoje em dia? E você não pode me culpar completamente por isso. A Sra. Smith me ajudou a executar o plano…” ele disse, sorrindo.
“Eu claramente não o levei a sério! Mas agora que vejo aquele carro novo e brilhante parado na nossa porta, eu me arrependo.”
“Sinceramente, eu tentei recusá-lo, querido”, Cynthia disse a Gregory. “Mas esse garoto não me ouviu! E foi tão difícil entrar no jogo! Eu sou péssima em atuar, não sou?”, ela perguntou, franzindo o nariz, e Jack riu.
“Acho que não, Sra. Smith!”
Gregory balançou a cabeça repetidamente. “Então esse velho estava sendo enganado e ele não tinha a mínima ideia? Ah, o que eu digo…”
Cynthia e Jack riram. “Tudo bem, tudo bem, chega de conversa”, Cynthia finalmente disse. “Agora, porque Jack veio até aqui por nós, não podemos simplesmente deixá-lo ir. Entre e junte-se a nós para o café da manhã, Jack, e não há necessidade de ir à loja, Gregory. Temos mantimentos que durarão pelo menos uma semana… Era tudo parte do plano”, ela riu enquanto entrava, Jack logo atrás dela.
O homem por trás do carro novo era Jack. | Fonte: Pexels
Enquanto todos estavam sentados à mesa de jantar, Cynthia serviu o café da manhã e Jack começou a relembrar seu primeiro encontro com Gregory. Cynthia sabia de pedaços da história deles, mas não sabia de todo o episódio.
“Então, três semanas atrás, Sra. Simpson”, Jack começou. “Eu conheci seu marido no aeroporto. Eu deveria voar no mesmo voo que ele para ver minha esposa. Ela estava em trabalho de parto e eu estava muito preocupado. Na minha ansiedade, não percebi que tinha errado a data na minha passagem. Era para o dia seguinte. Só percebi isso quando fiz o check-in.
“Como não havia mais assentos disponíveis naquele dia, Gregory me ofereceu seu ingresso e disse: ‘Rapaz, você PRECISA estar com sua esposa! Use meu ingresso e eu usarei o seu.’”
“Ok”, Cynthia disse lentamente, assentindo. “Eu sei sobre a troca de ingressos. Mas e os carros? Ainda estou me perguntando o que essa troca de carros tem a ver com qualquer coisa…”
Cynthia estava ansiosa para saber toda a história por trás da troca de carro. | Fonte: Pexels
Gregory riu. “Essa é outra parte interessante… Antes de irmos para o check-in, Jack e eu nos encontramos na sala de espera. Estávamos conversando casualmente, querida, e mencionei que ainda estávamos pagando empréstimos, então não podemos comprar um carro novo, e como o nosso antigo está nos dando problemas… Depois que trocamos as passagens, esse garoto disse: ‘Hoje trocamos as passagens; em algumas semanas, trocaremos de carro, isso é uma promessa!’
“Eu claramente não o levei a sério! Mas agora que vejo aquele carro novo e brilhante estacionado do lado de fora da nossa porta, me arrependo de ter dito a ele que queríamos um carro novo. Antes de partir, ele pegou meu endereço, e olha o que ele fez! Não podemos ficar com ele, Jack. Valorizamos suas intenções, mas isso é desnecessário, garoto…”
Cynthia assentiu. “Gregory está certo. Não poderemos ficar com o carro. Não pensei muito quando você se encontrou comigo ontem e me contou sobre toda essa surpresa, mas me arrependo de ter dito sim. Por favor, isso não é necessário…”
Gregory não conseguiu deixar de sorrir enquanto falava sobre seu encontro com Jack. | Fonte: Pexels
Mas Jack balançou a cabeça. “Confie em mim; não é nada em troca do que você fez. Por causa do seu marido, eu pude ficar com minha esposa e meu bebê. Por favor, eu me sentiria mal se você recusasse meu presente. Eu insisto…”
Gregory e Cynthia não conseguiram dizer não a Jack. Eles aceitaram o carro, mas a generosidade de Jack não terminou aí. Ele sabia que, depois que Gregory se aposentou, ele e Cynthia estavam lutando para pagar seus empréstimos e, como resultado, não conseguiram concluir os reparos da casa.
Então Jack cuidou disso para eles. E um dia, ele veio visitá-los com sua esposa e sua filha bebê.
Embora vivam em cidades diferentes, os Smiths sentem que se tornaram uma família misturada com Jack. O jovem os verifica de vez em quando e garante que eles não percam nada, especialmente depois de descobrir que o velho casal não tinha filhos.
O que podemos aprender com essa história?
- A gentileza nunca fica sem recompensa. Gregory ofereceu sua passagem de avião a Jack para que ele pudesse ficar com sua esposa grávida, e em troca, ele e Cynthia receberam tanto amor e respeito de Jack que eles nem sequer tinham pensado. Jack era como um filho para eles e cuidava de suas menores necessidades.
- Ajude alguém sempre que e de qualquer maneira que puder. Gregory poderia oferecer a Jack sua passagem para ajudá-lo, e ele fez isso. Em troca, ele e sua esposa foram abençoados com o amor de um filho que nunca tiveram.
Compartilhe esta história com seus amigos. Pode alegrar o dia deles e inspirá-los.
The sultry Heather Thomas of ‘The Fall Guy’ struggled with addiction – but look at her now, at 66
Known for her starring role opposite Lee Majors in The Fall Guy, Heather Thomas–who turned 66 on September 8–was poised for a hugely success Hollywood career.
But when the actor’s mother showed up on set after the show’s finale was filmed, the gorgeous blonde rushed to hospital, believing that her father had an emergency.
The family and friends who greeted her at the Santa Monica hospital let her know that her dad, Leon, was fine, and that it was her who had their concerns.
This was just the beginning of a new journey for the then 28-year-old woman, whose personal life and career completely transformed after that visit to the hospital.
Keep reading to find out what happened to the former pinup girl of the 1980s!
Gifted with the talent and natural movie star beauty that rivalled Farrah Fawcett and Heather Locklear, Heather Thomas did what she was born to do.
Playing Jody Banks, a stuntwoman-bounty hunter on the popular action show, Thomas was adored by the male population who viewed her as a sex symbol, a title which she admits to having mixed feelings.
“There’s obligatory condescension that goes with that,” Thomas told People. “You fill that archetype, the blonde bimbo. But at that point, I was just having fun.”
Unfortunately, she was having too much fun with the inclusion of drugs, a habit that started before her role as Jody Banks.
Her substance use dates to the sixth grade when she started using drugs to maintain steady top grades. Thomas said, “I was taking acid and making straight A’s. I just thought it was mind expanding.”
As her mind evolved from child to adult, so did the drugs she consumed.
At UCLA Thomas started using cocaine and in 1981, one year into her role on The Fall Guy, her drug problems escalated.
Also, feeling like she had to live up with her sex symbol title, the 5-foot-7 Thomas became obsessed with weight, and started taking Lasix, a diuretic that can cause severe lethargy.
To counteract the lethargy, she took more cocaine for a burst of energy.
“At first I was in a honeymoon stage with the drug. I felt that I was getting a lot for my money. It enabled me to stay up all night and then work all the next day,” she said, claiming that she never used cocaine on set. “Cocaine is not approved of on sets. It’s not clubby to do it anymore. It is just a private hell.”
Contrary to her claims, a source close to the actor told People that her drug use was derailing her career. “Word was out on Heather,” the source said. “People knew she had a problem.”
Thomas dropped from 125 to 105 pounds and was falling asleep between takes. Thomas admitted, “Sometimes I was in a minicoma.”
And then she passed out in front of Majors, who called her manager, who called her mother.
When the series finale of The Fall Guy wrapped, her mom, Gladdy Ryder–a former special education teacher–appeared on the set and told her daughter that her father was in hospital.
Rushing to St. John’s Hospital, the author of “Trophies” was greeted by family and friends who were ready to see her admitted into the hospital’s three-week drug program.
“It was a big relief to me,” Thomas said of that day, adding that when she checked into detox, she had pneumonia, scarred lungs and inflamed kidneys. “I’d been on a roller coaster and I wanted to get off. If my family hadn’t intervened, I probably would have gone on my merry way until I lost my job or I died.”
She added, “…The doctors said I should have been dead three years ago.”
Committed to recovery, Thomas surrounded herself with like-minded people who would benefit her goals of being drug-free. That was when Thomas, 28 at the time, met and married Allan Rosenthal, the co-founder of Cocaine Anonymous, whom she divorced in September 1986.
The same month, she suffered serious injuries to both legs when she was struck by a car while crossing the street.
After detox, divorce and surgery repair major damage in one of her legs, Thomas returned to work with smaller roles in TV series. She can also be seen in films like in Cyclone in 1987 and the 1990 Canadian film Red Blooded American Girl with Christopher Plummer.
With her troubles behind her, Thomas started new in the 1990s and while trying to revive her career, she married entertainment lawyer Skip Brittenham in 1992. Taking on the new role as the stepmother to his two daughters, Kristina and Shauna, Thomas also gave birth to her only biological child, daughter India Rose who was born in June 2000.
“So when I had about 45 restraining orders out, and I was on everything from a toilet seat cover to an ashtray–and I was in love, and [then] had two little girls–I decided to give it up and write for a while,” she told Reuters.
In 2017, Heather made a brief comeback in the movie Girltrash: All Night Long, one of her 26 acting credits in her career.
Focused mostly on writing, the Zapped! actor said it wasn’t a lack of roles that drove her from acting, but the stalkers who persistently breached her privacy.
“I was getting so stalked. I had one guy climb over the fence with a knife one time. I had these two little girls and they desperately needed raising so that was that. But I think now I have gotten so old that people won’t bother me much.”
Thomas is also now involved as an activist and formerly served on the board for the Rape Foundation and Amazon Conservation Team.
Identifying as a feminist–a duplicitous title for a former sex symbol–Thomas explained the power of both.
“When I was young, I did what people told me to do but when I was older, I didn’t compromise myself. I wanted power and freedom. This gave me a house and the notoriety to get into the door. There is nothing horrible in letting people see your body. I don’t think I betrayed myself. I don’t think being a feminist means you should be ashamed of your body,” she said.
It’s really sad that Heather Thomas was unable to revive her career in acting again but we’re happy that she got the help she needed and is now in a lifelong journey of recovery.
There are so many wonderful shows of the 1980s and we loved seeing her in the role of Jody Banks in The Fall Guy with the Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors!
We’d love to hear what you have to say about Thomas and her recovery!
Known for her starring role opposite Lee Majors in The Fall Guy, Heather Thomas–who turned 66 on September 8–was poised for a hugely success Hollywood career.
But when the actor’s mother showed up on set after the show’s finale was filmed, the gorgeous blonde rushed to hospital, believing that her father had an emergency.
The family and friends who greeted her at the Santa Monica hospital let her know that her dad, Leon, was fine, and that it was her who had their concerns.
At only 14 the girl hosted an NBC series called Talking with a Giant, a show where she and four other teens interviewed celebrities.
Wanting to take her career to the next level–as an actor, director and writer–Thomas, now 66, then studied film and theater at UCLA, and the year before she graduated, she appeared in the short-lived comedy series, Co-Ed Fever (1979).
Heather Locklear and Heather ThomasPosted by Back to 80s on Saturday, June 5, 2021
In 1980, the Connecticut-born actor won her first leading role in the TV series, The Fall Guy, playing the sidekick to Lee Majors, who in the 1970s, gained global recognition for his performance as Steven Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man.
Playing Jody Banks, a stuntwoman-bounty hunter on the popular action show, Thomas was adored by the male population who viewed her as a sex symbol, a title which she admits to having mixed feelings.
“There’s obligatory condescension that goes with that,” Thomas told People. “You fill that archetype, the blonde bimbo. But at that point, I was just having fun.”
Unfortunately, she was having too much fun with the inclusion of drugs, a habit that started before her role as Jody Banks.
Her substance use dates to the sixth grade when she started using drugs to maintain steady top grades. Thomas said, “I was taking acid and making straight A’s. I just thought it was mind expanding.”
As her mind evolved from child to adult, so did the drugs she consumed.
At UCLA Thomas started using cocaine and in 1981, one year into her role on The Fall Guy, her drug problems escalated.
Also, feeling like she had to live up with her sex symbol title, the 5-foot-7 Thomas became obsessed with weight, and started taking Lasix, a diuretic that can cause severe lethargy.
To counteract the lethargy, she took more cocaine for a burst of energy.
“At first I was in a honeymoon stage with the drug. I felt that I was getting a lot for my money. It enabled me to stay up all night and then work all the next day,” she said, claiming that she never used cocaine on set. “Cocaine is not approved of on sets. It’s not clubby to do it anymore. It is just a private hell.”
Contrary to her claims, a source close to the actor told People that her drug use was derailing her career. “Word was out on Heather,” the source said. “People knew she had a problem.”
Thomas dropped from 125 to 105 pounds and was falling asleep between takes. Thomas admitted, “Sometimes I was in a minicoma.”
And then she passed out in front of Majors, who called her manager, who called her mother.
When the series finale of The Fall Guy wrapped, her mom, Gladdy Ryder–a former special education teacher–appeared on the set and told her daughter that her father was in hospital.
Rushing to St. John’s Hospital, the author of “Trophies” was greeted by family and friends who were ready to see her admitted into the hospital’s three-week drug program.
“It was a big relief to me,” Thomas said of that day, adding that when she checked into detox, she had pneumonia, scarred lungs and inflamed kidneys. “I’d been on a roller coaster and I wanted to get off. If my family hadn’t intervened, I probably would have gone on my merry way until I lost my job or I died.”
She added, “…The doctors said I should have been dead three years ago.”
Committed to recovery, Thomas surrounded herself with like-minded people who would benefit her goals of being drug-free. That was when Thomas, 28 at the time, met and married Allan Rosenthal, the co-founder of Cocaine Anonymous, whom she divorced in September 1986.
The same month, she suffered serious injuries to both legs when she was struck by a car while crossing the street.
After detox, divorce and surgery repair major damage in one of her legs, Thomas returned to work with smaller roles in TV series. She can also be seen in films like in Cyclone in 1987 and the 1990 Canadian film Red Blooded American Girl with Christopher Plummer.
With her troubles behind her, Thomas started new in the 1990s and while trying to revive her career, she married entertainment lawyer Skip Brittenham in 1992. Taking on the new role as the stepmother to his two daughters, Kristina and Shauna, Thomas also gave birth to her only biological child, daughter India Rose who was born in June 2000.
“So when I had about 45 restraining orders out, and I was on everything from a toilet seat cover to an ashtray–and I was in love, and [then] had two little girls–I decided to give it up and write for a while,” she told Reuters.
In 2017, Heather made a brief comeback in the movie Girltrash: All Night Long, one of her 26 acting credits in her career.
Focused mostly on writing, the Zapped! actor said it wasn’t a lack of roles that drove her from acting, but the stalkers who persistently breached her privacy.
“I was getting so stalked. I had one guy climb over the fence with a knife one time. I had these two little girls and they desperately needed raising so that was that. But I think now I have gotten so old that people won’t bother me much.”
Thomas is also now involved as an activist and formerly served on the board for the Rape Foundation and Amazon Conservation Team.
Identifying as a feminist–a duplicitous title for a former sex symbol–Thomas explained the power of both.
“When I was young, I did what people told me to do but when I was older, I didn’t compromise myself. I wanted power and freedom. This gave me a house and the notoriety to get into the door. There is nothing horrible in letting people see your body. I don’t think I betrayed myself. I don’t think being a feminist means you should be ashamed of your body,” she said.
It’s really sad that Heather Thomas was unable to revive her career in acting again but we’re happy that she got the help she needed and is now in a lifelong journey of recovery.
There are so many wonderful shows of the 1980s and we loved seeing her in the role of Jody Banks in The Fall Guy with the Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors!
We’d love to hear what you have to say about Thomas and her recovery!
If you just took a walk down memory lane, step back in time again and read about the iconic model Twiggy – and press here to see how she looks today, at 73.
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