Amy fed a homeless man who had sauntered into the restaurant she worked at, but a few minutes later, she was shocked when she discovered who the homeless man really was.
Amy was really hungry that afternoon when she returned from college and made her way to the restaurant where she worked part-time. She decided to buy herself a meal with the little money she had on her, so she sat at the table and politely asked her colleague Jane to bring her the menu.
Amy was still going through the menu when a dirty-looking homeless old man sauntered into the restaurant, looking quite lost. The old man stood in the middle of the restaurant, looking around like he didn’t even know where he was. Amy’s colleagues all acted like they didn’t want anything to do with the old man. None of them even made any attempt to come to the old man’s aid. They all completely ignored him like he wasn’t even there.
But not Amy. She completely forgot about her hunger when she realized that the old man clearly needed some help. So she stood up, went over to where the old man stood, gently held his hands, and drew him to a table where he sat down. Then Amy asked the man what he wanted. The old man could only stutter, “hungry.” So Amy told Jane to bring the old man a full meal. She paid for the man’s meal with the money she had; she would have to make do with water herself.
As the old man devoured his meal, Amy attempted to engage him in a conversation, but the old man just stared at her, looking confused.
Amy was born into a very poor family. They lived in a small, old, almost cabin-looking house at the outskirts of the city. Then, when Amy was just six, her father Peter abandoned her mother Deborah with four children, and he eloped with his younger lover. With Peter gone, Deborah found it very hard to care for her four kids alone. She worked very hard, doing any odd job she could lay her hands on just to provide for her family.
Amy had always dreamt of going to college, but Deborah made it very clear to Amy that she just couldn’t afford to see her through college. But Amy wasn’t deterred, and she studied really hard in high school. Amy was the textbook example of a child that burned the midnight candle.
Luck smiled at Amy as she won a partial scholarship to study in a prestigious college of her choice. Amy chose to study medicine, but due to the fact that the scholarship was only partial, Amy still had to somehow find enough money for her rent, food, and other basic necessities. So she worked part-time as a cleaner in a highbrow school.
Then, just 2 years later, Deborah was diagnosed with clinical heart failure and needed to undergo a very expensive surgery to correct the condition. The open heart surgery was estimated to cost up to $188,000. Since Deborah just couldn’t manage to cough out such a whopping amount of money, she had no choice but to continue managing her condition. Her sickness forced her to stop working, so Deborah had to shoulder the responsibilities of taking care of not just herself but her sick mom and three younger siblings. It was a heavy burden on young Amy’s shoulders, but she was determined to find a better paying job to help her family.
It wasn’t easy, and she basically walked the whole city with a resume in hand after school, going from one office to another looking for a job. Finally, Amy got a higher-paying job as a waitress at a fancy restaurant. The pay wasn’t big, but it was still enough to take care of Amy’s basic needs and that of her families as well.
Still, Amy had one priority, which was to save enough money for her mom’s heart surgery. At this rate, though, it would take a long time.
The old man was still eating his full meal, and Amy was still sipping her water when Jane came over and started taunting her about using her money for some dirty old man she didn’t know. Most of Amy’s other colleagues, who had all crowded near her table to watch the strange old man, joined Jane in laughing at Amy.
Dismayed at her colleagues’ antics, Amy stood up angrily and told Jane off. “Is there anything wrong in helping and helping a soul, man, even if it means missing out on one meal?” Amy loudly asked Jane. But her colleagues continued laughing at her.
The restaurant’s owner and manager, a 32-year-old self-made young man named Charles, heard the echoing laughter from the kitchen and decided to go have a look. He quietly walked to where his workers were crowded together and still laughing, then he asked in a quiet but firm tone, “What’s going on here?”
On sighting their boss, all the workers’ laughter immediately died down. Then Jane stood up and told her boss what Amy had been up to—leading a confused old man to a table and getting him a meal.
Charles said nothing. He just walked over to the table where Amy was still sitting with the old man and took one look at the old man, who had then finished his meal and was wiping his mouth.
“Dad!” Charles shouted. The old man looked up at once, saw Charles, and quickly stood up with a smile on his face. Charles rushed over to the old man and embraced them tightly. Both of them remained in their tight embrace for what seemed like ages.
It so happened that the old man named Patrick, who was indeed Charles’s father, had been suffering from severe Alzheimer’s for a long time. One day, Patrick had just walked away from Charles’s home and gotten lost in the maze of the city, wandering from place to place, sleeping rough on the streets, and begging for food. And that was how he had wandered into the restaurant after almost a month of being missing.
After a long embrace, Charles ordered all his other workers, who were all watching the unfolding drama, dumbfounded, to return to their posts at once. They all dispersed immediately. Then Charles took his dad by the hand and warmly told Amy to follow him to his office.
When they got to his office, Charles told Amy about his dad and praised her for the rare act of kindness. Then he asked her to tell him about herself. Amy told Charles everything, from her bitter childhood experiences to her mother’s sickness and expensive surgery. Charles really pitied Amy after her emotional story.
Then he gave her $11,000 in cash and told her to come back to his office the next morning. Amy warmly thanked Charles and happily left his office. The very next morning, Amy was back at Charles’s office. Without much ado, Charles offered Amy the position of caregiver for Patrick. The job would come with a nice salary, double what she was making at the restaurant, and she would only have to visit and care for Patrick during the hours she had been working at the restaurant after classes.
Amy was overwhelmed with joy. She thanked Charles profusely, but Charles was not done yet. He told Amy that since she had helped his father with the only money she had on her, he was willing to help her mother with his money. Charles immediately brought out a check for $20,000 and told Amy to use it for her mom’s surgery. Amy couldn’t believe it. She almost fainted with shock. She collected the check from Charles with shaking hands. Then she knelt down and thanked Charles, even calling him a god-sent messiah.
Amy went home as soon as she could, and armed with Charles’ check, she took Deborah to the hospital for her open heart surgery. With time, Deborah fully recovered and was back to her old, hardworking self. Amy returned to the city and continued her studies while dedicatedly working as Patrick’s caregiver.
Charles was so happy to see Patrick’s impressive improvement under the care of Amy. She was always very gentle and kind with the old man, who had immediately taken to her. With time, Charles fell deeply in love with the then 22-year-old Amy—her kindness, intelligence, and beauty hooked him. Amy was also gradually but surely falling for the kind, handsome, and smart Charles.
It happened very fast between them, and Charles and Amy were soon dating. And how much they loved each other. A year later, the lovebirds tied the knot. After the marriage, Charles gradually lifted Amy’s entire family out of poverty. He rented a better apartment for Deborah and Amy’s siblings in the city. Then, with his connections, he found Deborah a high-paying job. Amy’s siblings all went to the best schools. It was really a grace-to-grace story for Amy and her family, all thanks to Amy’s kindness and Charles’s gratitude and generosity.
If you were Amy, would you have helped the homeless old man the way she did? Feel free to share your comments in the comment section.
