When this woman entered a local supermarket, she had no idea her life would change forever. She finished her shopping list and impulsively bought a lottery ticket on the way out. When the ticket turned out to be the winning one, her life changed in more ways than one. Her tough life of being a single mother suddenly became much easier, but the biggest change in her life was due to a homeless man.
Amber remembered vividly the moment when her life changed forever. She had just finished a long shift at work and stepped into the local grocery store to get dinner for her and her daughter. Amber wanted to get home to her daughter, so she quickly grabbed everything she needed and went to the checkout. But right when she packaged all the items, something near the shop’s exit caught her attention. There appeared to be a new small stand in the shop, and when Amber got closer, she noticed it was a counter where you could buy lottery tickets. The tickets were only $2 and had a chance to win a jackpot worth a whopping $100,000. On impulse, she decided to buy one ticket.
On her way home, Amber fantasized about what she would do if she won. Once home, Amber showed her daughter the ticket and gave it to her. “Make sure you put all your luck into it,” she said. Her daughter would be in charge of checking all the numbers later that evening. After dinner, Amber and her daughter sat in front of the TV to see if there was any truth to the lucky feeling Amber had in the store. They saw the numbers appear on the screen, and Amber’s daughter gasped as the first two numbers matched. It didn’t really mean much as it was only a $20 profit, but hey, it was ten times what she paid for the ticket and it meant free groceries the next day. But with each matching number, their eyes grew bigger and bigger.
“Oh my God, I’ve won!” the single mother exclaimed as she jumped up from her seat and hugged her daughter. If anyone needed it, it would be Amber and her daughter because their lives had not been easy until now. The last few years felt like life had dealt Amber and her daughter Rose a lousy hand. It wasn’t always this bad for them. Amber was happily married just a couple of years ago, but when her husband died after fighting with an unfair illness, their lives took a wrong turn. Besides the grief, raising a daughter as a single parent was hard. Money was scarce, and she struggled to make ends meet. But that would be behind them now, because this massive amount of money would change everything.
The following day, Amber went back to the store. She couldn’t cash the ticket because the amount was far too large for the store to reimburse, but she wanted to simply thank the clerk who sold it to her. Amber walked out of the store with a broad smile, but her mood instantly changed after a few steps. She noticed something out of the corner of her eye, and when she looked to the left, her grin disappeared. Beside the grocery store sat a homeless man, but not just any homeless man—no, this one looked sadder and more aimless than ever. Somehow, his presence struck a chord in Amber’s heart. She felt sorry and knew she had to do something to help.
With determination in her step, Amber walked over to her car and placed her groceries in the trunk. The worried woman then turned around and started walking over to the poor man who was now sitting on the concrete pavement. Initially, the man seemed oblivious, but he eventually realized that Amber was walking directly toward him, not the store entrance. The moment he realized this, he turned away and looked down nervously. Amber noticed the sudden change in behavior and motion. Eventually, Amber reached the man and asked if he was all right. If the man hoped to get Amber to ignore him, his behavior didn’t help because his nervous behavior sparked Amber’s need to help him even more. The man probably never had someone help him, making him shy.
At that moment, Amber decided that she was going to change that. She was given so much, so she felt it was her responsibility to give a little back. The man kept staring at the ground in front of him, and Amber waited in silence. Eventually, Amber realized he wasn’t going to respond.
“Come with me, please,” she suddenly said. It was a strange request and probably the last thing the homeless man expected to hear from her.
“To do what?” he replied.
“Just come along,” she said gently.
Amber seemed to get through to him, and after some deliberation, he slowly lifted himself off the ground.
“What happens now?” the homeless man asked while making sure his face remained shrouded in the shadows.
Amber tried to reassure him and told him about the ticket she had bought and the money she won. “Thanks to the lottery, my family and I are financially stable,” Amber continued explaining, “and thanks to that, we have the opportunity to help less fortunate people.” They stood in silence for a moment. The homeless man was taken aback by Amber’s generous offer.
“That is far too much,” he stammered, but Amber didn’t want to take no for an answer, so the man eventually entered her car. As they drove out of the parking lot together, Amber explained that she was a hairdresser and the salon she worked at was close by, so that would be the first thing they would do. The man beside her shuffled uneasily, but she told him not to worry. “It’s past closing time, so I can cut your hair in peace. I don’t think my boss would approve this anyway,” she smiled.
Just moments later, they arrived at the salon. Amber opened the door and turned on all the lights, after which she offered to take the homeless man’s jacket, but he refused to take it off. After the man’s hair was washed, Amber combed it back, and she was surprised. He looked more well-kept, which made him look like a completely different man already. The young mother looked into the mirror and inspected the homeless man’s facial features. Something about it seemed familiar, but she couldn’t figure out why. She thought it would all be revealed after the trim. She shaved and cut until a neatly organized haircut remained. Now the man’s face was truly cleaned up, and Amber got her first good look at him. But now that he was all cleaned up, he oddly resembled someone she knew very well. This man she just met today looked an awful lot like her deceased husband. The likeness was uncanny and something Amber couldn’t just ignore. She gathered all her strength and managed to find the right words.
“I’m sorry, but you look much like my husband, Marcus,” she said. She didn’t expect the homeless man to answer as it was probably just a coincidence, but to her surprise, he responded, and it blew her mind. It wasn’t the response anyone would have expected—he started crying softly.
It took Amber by surprise. “Because I know your husband very well,” he said.
It took some time before Amber fully realized what the homeless man had said, and once she did, it confused the hell out of her. He didn’t only claim to know her deceased husband but also Amber. “We’ve never spoken in person, yet I have heard so much about you,” he said.
“How did he know who she was? Was he secretly following her? Had he planned for them to meet outside that supermarket?”
“Explain who you are now,” she demanded.
The homeless man talked in a soft and calming voice. “I’m sorry if I frightened you. I can explain, just listen to me carefully,” and then he revealed the truth. The homeless man looked Amber in the eyes and said that his name was David and he was her dead husband’s father. “Marcus was my son, hence the resemblance. Even though you’ve never heard of me, Marcus has told me a lot about you,” the man said.
Amber was completely shaken up by this revelation and had difficulty believing the old man. She asked David to explain, and his reason was heartbreaking. He started by saying that he and his son Marcus had a huge falling out when Marcus was a teenager. This was well after David and Marcus’s mother separated and shared custody of their son. “She and I never saw eye to eye after the breakup and avoided each other. But after that fight, my relationship with Marcus also fell apart,” he explained.
After the fight, the father and son didn’t see each other for many years. Marcus chose to live with his mother, who quickly gained full custody until he was 18, but even after that, Marcus didn’t want to see his father. “But things changed when he got sick. He contacted me and said he wanted to mend his past while he still could,” David explained. “And so we rekindled our bond. Those few months with Marcus were probably the most precious months of my life, and I would have loved to have attended the funeral, but—” David’s voice wavered a little as he tried to fight his tears. David continued to explain that he did view the funeral from a distance. He watched friends and family say goodbye to his son, and afterward, he could do it himself in peace and quiet.
Amber listened to David breathlessly and subconsciously approached this saddened man. His story was heartfelt and bizarre at the same time. For most people, it might even have sounded wholly made up. But now only one question remained. Amber really wanted to believe the story and accept the fact that David was Marcus’s father, but one thing bugged her about it all.
“I want to believe you, but how in God’s name did you end up living on the street as a homeless man?” she asked David.
David said his life took a wrong turn after he and Marcus
split up in his son’s teenage years. Losing the woman he loved was hard, but he still had the love of his son. But when he lost that as well, he spiraled into a dark place, one that would scar his life for many years. David felt lost and alone, and that had some major consequences.
David looked at her with a confused look, not knowing what to expect, but when Amber said they were going to her house, the rugged father started smiling. When they arrived at Amber’s house, it was where his son lived with his loved ones. He had never seen it before and loved everything about it. Once inside, Amber showed him around and eventually told him he could use the shower to freshen up again. Afterward, a big surprise waited because when he came out of the shower, he saw that she had laid out some of her husband’s old clothes. David and Marcus were about the same build and height, so the clothes fit him perfectly.
Step by step, David was able to recover from the dark hole that filled his life after Marcus’s death. They found solace and comfort in each other as they told stories about Marcus that the other didn’t know. At one point, everything was going so great that Amber decided it was time for reconciliation. Now, David was happily living in his garden shed home and completely controlling his life. Although his new family had no financial problems, he wanted to play his part and searched for a small job. He eventually found one as a janitor at the local high school. He loved his new job and family situation and often looked back, thinking he didn’t deserve all this.
