Everyone wants to spend more time with their grown up children, and some parents don’t ever want their son or daughter to leave home. However, as everyone knows, little birds eventually leave the nest and fly away all on their own, and this was no different in the Souza family. But it is important to know the difference between leaving home and abandoning home so that a situation like that of the two daughters from this family never happens again.
In a small town in the countryside, a little girl named Alice Souza was born. She would grow up to become a very wise woman. Thanks to her enormous dedication to her studies and ambition that was obvious from the cradle, Alice managed to become a large and successful businesswoman in the agricultural industry. With this, she built her own house and farm right there, in the place where she was born. She never wanted to move to the city or live a busy life, preferring the calm and security that the countryside had always provided. And one day she met a handsome young man, who helped her when her car broke down on the road from the city to her farm. It was love at first sight, he had never met a woman so beautiful and determined and did not waste his chance. He asked her out right then and there. Soon after, following old customs and traditions, they married early and had two beautiful daughters.
Making her old dream come true, Alice raised her daughters on her beautiful farm. Every day they watched the sun rise and set. She taught the little girls how to treat the animals well, and even how to deal with pests that tried to ruin the crops and plants. The girls were always enchanted by this, they loved to wake up to the sound of the roosters crowing and to go to sleep to the beautiful opera of crickets.
But this all changed as the years went by. More and more they complained about how monotonous everything was, and how they didn’t have big parties or the excitement that a big city has. Alice and her husband knew that this day would come, that one day the beautiful farm and beautiful house would not be enough for their girls, and the desire to move to the city would become greater than the desire to live with their parents. They were not disappointed by this and had been prepared for years, as the girls grew more and more and showed their discontent, their parents knew it would be very difficult to compete with the entertainment they could have in the city. And when they came of age, the two decided to leave their parents’ home and try their hand at life in the big city.
Being very well educated and pulling on their mother’s intelligence, both daughters started successful careers in the world of entrepreneurship. Alice was shocked to learn that they were so interested in the world of business and money, but she and her husband were very happy for their success.
And so, time went by, eventually the two girls became great and powerful women with their own children and family. However, Alice and her husband, together for almost 50 years, didn’t see their grandchildren as much as they would have liked. They didn’t hold it against their daughters too much because, after all, it was a long trip from the city to the farm, and with so much technology and innovation, what would the children do with two elderly people? But this worried them more than they ever cared to mention. It wasn’t only the grandchildren who didn’t visit, but the daughters either! Only on some holidays or the odd birthdays, and even then, the old couple knew that they could never count on their presence or that of their families.
Unfortunately, a serious illness struck Alice’s husband and he passed away in the comfort of his bed, on the farm where he had lived almost his whole life after marrying alice. During those final weeks, his wife never left his side, but what pained her the most was not the death of her husband, but the little attention the daughters paid to him. They would call only occasionally just to check if he was dead or not, which made Alice very sad.
They attended the funeral, but didn’t bring their children, and why should they? His grandchildren hardly knew their own grandfather. Alice tried to approach them during the ceremony, seeking a caring word of comfort through the great sadness she was going through. But the two daughters were cold and compassionless, leaving soon after the body was buried and returning only for the reading of the will. But they knew that they wouldn’t get much, not because they were heartless daughters, but because their father did not have much property or money, most of it was with Alice, their mother.
The two went back to the city and Alice was left alone in that huge farmhouse. A middle-aged woman who lived in the area learned of Alice’s husband’s death, and went to talk to the lady to see if she needed anything. Seeing that Alice already needed help, the woman, who was a nurse, offered to take care of her a few times a week, help with the house and monitor her health. Alice accepted, since she knew her daughters would do nothing of the sort.
They soon became great friends, and the nurse, whose name was Laura, came to visit Alice three times a week. Laura made the food, but was always accompanied by the old lady who never failed to prepare her own lunch and always gave Laura tips. Laura also did the housework and administered Alice’s medications. If her daughters visited infrequently before her husband’s death, from the moment Laura started taking care of the old lady, they never showed up in the area again. Alice had gotten rid of most of her animals, leaving only the ones she could take care of by herself, and left this task to no one else but herself, who felt that every time she took care of them, she was honoring her late husband. So even with her deteriorating health, she did everything she could to keep the farm in good condition.
One hot day, Laura went to pay one of her visits to the old lady, to make sure everything was all right and to administer her medicine, and was surprised when she entered the house. Alice was sitting in her old rocking chair, which had some pieces broken off, due to the action of time and termites. She was looking at old photo albums and crying as she gazed at memories of a time that would never come back. “torturing yourself again Mrs Alice? Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Said Nurse Laura. But she knew it wasn’t that easy, and she noticed that this lady was suffering without her daughters. Laura had a daughter of her own, and knew how badly she would feel if the girl one day abandoned her and went to live far away without any news.
So she decided to act. She waited for Alice to take her daily after lunch nap, and searched her old cell phone for some of her daughters’ contact information. But when she found it, she became indecisive and began to wonder if she was doing the right thing, how much could she meddle in the lives of that family? Even without knowing what she was going to say, Laura marshaled up her courage and dialed the number of one of Alice’s daughters. She was not surprised when after more than 10 attempts, neither of Alice’s daughters answered. What if she was calling in an emergency? In need of help now? She thought indignantly.
Weeks passed and a heavy rainstorm hit the region. With winds and lightning that could destroy crops, traumatize animals and even destroy houses, rain like that was every farmer’s nightmare. Laura then received a call from Alice, who said that a part of her roof had collapsed due to the water and that she doesn’t know who else to call. Asking if she had called any of her daughters, the old lady simply said “Well, they’re always very busy with their work and their children. It’s okay, I can manage without them, I don’t want to be a bother.
That was the last straw for Laura. With the house in need of renovations that would take weeks, and Alice in poor health, she informed her husband and daughter that she would take the lady to live with them. Alice did not want to accept because she promised her deceased husband that she would only leave the farm in a coffin, just like he did. However, she eventually gave in when she saw that this was the only solution. It seemed that even the old lady knew she would never return to her farm.
She said goodbye to the remaining animals, to the house, and to the beautiful view she and her daughters used to look at every day, as if she wanted to go back in time and live those days forever. When Laura asked why she was treating everything with such sadness if she was going to return there after a few weeks, Alice answered: “When you are my age, you will realize that each week should be appreciated as a month and each year should be appreciated as a decade. I say goodbye because I know that my time here is short and should be admired.” She seemed to know her destiny, as if she had sensed what was going to happen.
Alice passed away from natural causes just as the sun peeked over the horizon and illuminated the window of the room she was staying at in Laura’s house, only two weeks after she left home. She did not have time to return to her old farmhouse, which wouldn’t finish the renovations until more than a month behind schedule due to construction delays.
The middle-aged nurse then called Alice’s daughters to tell them the news, and they received the news with unimaginable coldness. When asked if either of them would attend the funeral, one answered: “What difference will it make if we go? She won’t even notice our absence. We’ll come by later to deal with the estate.” At that moment Laura said everything that had been stuck in her throat for the past few months. She asked how they could treat their own mother like that, a woman who never did any harm to them and only loved and cared for them deeply. However, the call dropped before Laura could hear the answer.
A few weeks later, the nurse was home, talking to her daughter and helping her with some school work, when her doorbell rang once, twice, three times and wouldn’t stop. Laura went to see who could be ringing her doorbell like that and was prepared for a confrontation with the two ungrateful daughters of her late friend. But she opened the door and was surprised. It was a tall man in a black suit, who she had never seen before. “Good afternoon Mrs. Laura, my name is Alberto and I am here on behalf of the late Miss Alice” Said the mysterious man.
She welcomed him and offered him a coffee. Maybe this was a friend of her former friend and boss who wanted to know what happened to the old lady… or maybe even a lost son! But the man introduced himself as the family’s lawyer, and explained that he was there to read Alice’s will. He was also there to inform her that Laura and her family had been indicated in the will as the inheritors of the house and all the money that was in the deceased’s accounts. Although she was modest, Alice had been one of the biggest in the farming business and had saved a good part of her money.
The moment she heard this, Laura almost fell over backwards. She never imagined that Alice had been so important when she was younger, nor that Laura would inherit some of her money. Laura and her family had been going through some financial difficulties since her husband had lost his job, and she saw this as a great opportunity to raise her daughter and pay for her education, and was very grateful to her late boss. Along with this, the lawyer also left a letter written by Alice, which would have to be read to her daughters by the nurse herself, as the old lady wished.
The next day a car pulled into the mud lane in front of Laura’s house and she soon guessed who it could be from the cries of despair and curses she heard from inside. When she opened the door and confirmed that it was, in fact, Alice’s daughters, the nurse began to hear horrible things from one of the women: “You manipulated her into this, didn’t you? It was all your plan, you greedy liar! But it won’t stay that way!” Patiently, Laura reached into her pocket for the letter that had been left behind and began to read aloud: “If you two are hearing this, then it means that I no longer walk this earth. I imagine you are screaming at innocent and sweet Laura, but I am sure she will make better use of the house and the money than you two.
I imagine that you would sell my farm or turn it into a shopping mall and I can’t let you do that. I know that with Laura everything will be fine. As for the money, I know that my dear daughters never had time for me, so I imagine they won’t have time for my money either. I have left my grandchildren an amount that they can access when they reach the age of 18, because I know that the little contact I had with them was your fault and not theirs. Goodbye, and raise your children well, so that you never have to go through what I did.”
The two were emotional and couldn’t hold back the tears. Besides the letter, there was also the photo album, with pictures of the whole family reunited and happy from years ago. Laura took care of the farm and moved into the house with her family. She bought new animals and used the money from Alice to make the place even more beautiful. She likes to think that at the end of it all, the two daughters ultimately regretted treating their parents so horribly and abandoning their family.
