When Cindy Brooks’ ungrateful children dumped her in a foster home and sold her home, she thought her fate was sealed. But when they came to visit her two years later, they found that someone had come to rescue their mother and take her home.
Cindy Brooks loved her job. She had worked in her antique shop for decades, but the time seemed right for her to retire and enjoy her years stress-free. She had saved a good penny and was looking forward to her retirement.
Just a few years earlier, she had suffered a life-changing event after she and her husband, Eric Brooks, divorced. She had been heartbroken! More than just her husband, Eric was her confidante and companion for the four decades they were married.
Everyone had been jealous of their marriage. Unfortunately, over the years they had grown apart, and their dreams and life goals had changed after Eric left his job to try his hand at farming.
They decided it would be best to part amicably before they started hating each other. With that, Eric moved to Texas, leaving Cindy and her two children behind.
“What will I do without you, sweetheart?” she often wondered as she stared at her husband’s old photos.
Despite the divorce, she always kept photos of him on the fireplace in her house.
She often burst into tears when she thought of her husband. The couple married young and had children at an early age. Cindy often wished they had just waited a little longer to give birth to their children so their babies, Emily and Jonathan, could be home a little longer.
They were all adults and had long since left home to start their own lives, families and jobs. She had the house all to herself, which admittedly felt pretty lonely for an aging woman.
Now, at 70, she retired and didn’t know what to do with her life. She had a tight-knit community around her, but that wasn’t how she imagined her twilight years to be. She wanted to take care of her grandchildren easily.
Her children did not visit her often, and visits had become even less frequent in recent years. She hoped her new life would allow her to see her more often and spend time with her grandchildren. She would soon have the surprise of her life.
One morning, Cindy woke up to the doorbell ringing insistently. “Who could be visiting so early? It’s barely dawn!” complained an annoyed Cindy as she slung a robe over her shoulders and headed downstairs.
“Your mother was taken from here,” Angela said, cowering in fear.
When she opened the door, she couldn’t believe her eyes! There stood Emily and Jonathan! It was only hours after she had prayed that they would visit her. “God answers prayers!” she thought to herself.
She flew into the arms of her children, tears flowing freely down her soft, flushed cheeks. However, her joy soon turned to pain when she heard her son say, “We did not come here in vain, mother. We are here to take you to your new home.”
“But…but…this is my home. What do you mean by my new home?” Cindy asked, all the previous excitement quickly fading from her face.
“Now that you’re retired, we want to put you in a nursing home where you have someone to look after you 24 hours a day,” Emily said, speaking for the first time since her mother answered the door.
“I don’t need anyone to take care of me. I’ve always taken care of myself and will continue to do so without anyone’s help,” she yelled at her kids even as Emily went inside to start packing.
Cindy was beside herself. The one time her children visited her, they were there to put her in a foster home. She felt frail and disappointed.
After screaming in a hoarse voice and trying in vain to change her children’s minds, she gave up and slowly retreated into a quietly resigned expression as her children packed her into their car and drove to the nursing home, miles away , which she had called home for decades.
Unbeknownst to Cindy, her children had already put the house up for sale and received part of the payment for their childhood home. The house was in an affluent neighborhood and had brought them quite a bit.
The children hardly spoke to the mother as everyone seemed lost in thought – Jonathan and Emily were apparently planning their holidays with proceeds from the sale of the house while Cindy, sitting in the back, questioned her upbringing and occasionally sighed in defeat expelled.
Arriving at the nursing home, Jonathan and Emily dropped their poor mother off at reception and drove away, eager to return home and celebrate their victory.
Cindy was devastated! During the long drive, she had hoped her children would play a sick prank on her, but now she realized her decision was final. She was quickly escorted to her room and, knowing her fate was sealed, she closed the door and cried herself to sleep.
Life in the nursing home wasn’t as tough as Cindy had imagined. After getting over her initial shock, she made new friends and enjoyed their company. She especially loved walking through the gardens with her friends and picking flowers.
Days and weeks passed, but one day, she was walking through the gardens with one of her friends when she noticed a truck parked in the parking lot. For some reason the truck and driver looked familiar.
“I know this truck… and the driver!” she blurted out to her friend, who was busy with the flowers that always brightened up her otherwise gloomy days.
“Is it your son?” asked the friend.
“No, I can’t tell exactly from the distance, but it doesn’t look like it’s Jonathan,” Cindy replied, hurrying to the truck.
A year and eight months later…
Jonathan and Emily parked their car in the nursing home parking lot and rushed to the front desk. “We’re here to see our mother, Cindy Brooks,” Jonathan told receptionist Angela.
“Cindy…Brooks? Cindy hasn’t been here for a year and eight months!” said Angela, opening a tab on her computer that showed her residents’ discharge dates.
“What do you mean, she’s not here? Where is she?” Jonathan asked loudly.
“Your mother was picked up from here,” Angela said, cowering in fear.
“Where? Who picked her up? And with whose consent?” Emily yelled as Jonathan gave Angela an intimidating look.
Later that evening, the two knocked on a turquoise door at the address Angela had given them and waited, panting, to see who had kidnapped their mother. They were shocked to recognize the owner of the home as their estranged father, their mother’s ex-husband Eric.
For years, Eric, an avid farmer, had delivered groceries to the nursing home. One day while doing his deliveries, he noticed Cindy walking through the gardens with other residents.
At first Eric thought he was wrong because he could never have imagined a woman as agile and strong as Cindy in a nursing home, so he went to see Angela at the reception.
Angela had told him how Cindy’s children had dropped them off there and left again and that none of them had come to visit while Cindy had been there. Eric immediately took care of Cindy.
“I spent many happy years with her, so I will take care of her,” he had told nursing home management before grabbing Cindy and taking her home.
Eric lived alone well into his 80s. After he and Cindy divorced, he never remarried. Now the two had found each other again and bonded over the years lost in battle.
“So why are you looking for me after you’ve let me down for so long?” Cindy asked.”
“We’re sorry, mother,” Emily said. “We are truly sorry for what we did to you. We were blinded by greed to consider your needs.”
“We came to the nursing home to apologize for the pain we caused you,” Jonathan said, taking a piece of paper from his suitcase. “We bought the house back for you,” he added, handing his mother the paperwork.
Cindy was speechless! She couldn’t believe her children, who had been so hostile towards her two years ago, had turned the page so quickly. “Are you honest?” she asked tearfully.
Emily and Jonathan begged their parents’ forgiveness, and Cindy, kind as ever, replied, “On one condition.”
“Whatever it is, mother,” Emily said.
“I want you two to bring your kids over here as often as possible so they can spend time with their grandma and grandpa,” exclaimed Cindy.
“Done!”, Emily and Jonathan answered at the same time.
Eventually, Cindy and Eric sold Cindy’s house, got married in a small garden ceremony attended by their children and grandchildren, and spent the rest of their days with their grandchildren, just as Cindy had envisioned her retirement.
What can we learn from this story?
We should always be grateful to our parents and always remember their sacrifices . Jonathan and Emily forgot all the sacrifices their mother made in raising her and wanted nothing to do with her at her age.
Forgiveness is earned. If Jonathan and Emily hadn’t come to apologize to their mother, they might have lost their relationship with their parents forever and ruined their children’s relationship with their grandparents.